What is the EPA Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools Program?

The U.S. EPA has developed an innovative program – Indoor Air Quality Tools For Schools(TFS) program – for schools to identify and address IAQ problems. The program is based on the following key principles:

• Many IAQ problems can be prevented by the school community
• IAQ problems can often be resolved using the skills of school staff
• The expenditures and effort to prevent most IAQ problems is a fraction of that required    to solve problems once they develop.

EPA’s Tools For Schools (TFS) is based on an action kit providing all the materials necessary to promote a low-cost, problem-solving team approach to improving IAQ. Once a committee of administrators, teachers, maintenance staff, parents, and others investigates and prioritizes indoor air hazards, short and long term strategies are developed to solve IAQ problems. The program should not be viewed as a “quick fix” remedy, but rather an ongoing, preventive strategy. The EPA has developed a “tool” kit of useful materials to assist schools in implementing the program.

Several agencies and organizations, including EPA, have identified the need to provide assistance to school systems in order to implement EPA Tools for Schools(TFS), and have formed a consortium of agencies and organizations  – the CT School Indoor Environment Resource Team-formed to assist schools to implement TFS.  The Resource Team includes IAQ specialists, industrial hygienists, epidemiologists, educators, trainers and others who can assist schools. A primary objective of the Resource Team is to provide training and technical support to TfS coordinators and committees.