New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill on Saturday that sets the maximum temperature for classrooms statewide to 88 degrees. If classroom temperatures climb above that, schools must create a plan to relocate students and staff.
School districts must also develop plans to reduce extreme heat when classroom temperatures reach 82 degrees, like turning on fans or providing water breaks.
“Extreme heat can significantly impact a student's concentration, focus and ability to learn,” Hochul said in a statement. "With this new law, we are continuing to make the health and safety of our kids and educators a top priority.”
Researchers have found that students’ test scores suffer on extremely hot days. Yet many schools in New York and nationwide have limited air conditioning access, and no federal rules require schools to limit classroom temperatures.
For years, teachers' unions and child advocacy groups across the state have called for better protections for staff and students in schools on high-heat days, which are becoming more common due to climate change.
“We celebrate a monumental step forward for the health and safety of students and educators across New York,” said Melinda Person, president of New York State United Teachers, a statewide teachers’ union that backed the bill. “Governor Hochul's decision to sign this bill into law reflects a commitment to ensuring our classrooms are conducive to learning — not sweltering saunas.”
But the legislation has also drawn concern from some school administrators and advocates who worry the new law could put schools that are unable to afford air conditioning in a bind.
The New York State School Board Association, which represents the state’s public boards of education, fought against the bill. Brian Fessler, the organization’s director of governmental relations, wrote in a letter to Hochul earlier this month that temperature limits would be difficult for schools to implement and could have a disproportionate impact on low-income students, who may be more likely to attend schools that don’t have air conditioning.
“You're simply moving students from a hot or uncomfortably warm classroom to a hot, uncomfortably warm home setting,” said Fessler. “I don't know what that does for that student, other than shut school down for the rest of that day.”
Fessler said he wished the state had offered districts more flexibility and support to implement cooling measures. A separate piece of legislation would have created a state-funded grant program to help schools pay for air conditioning systems, but it failed to make it out of committee.
Several other states, like California and Minnesota, have heat protections included in their labor standards, which apply to schools. Elsewhere, like in Nevada and Arizona, education-related laws set classroom temperature limits or require schools to have air conditioning.
Don Haas, director of teacher programming at the Paleontological Research Institute in Ithaca, welcomed the new classroom heat legislation. However, he said he hopes that state legislators will also take steps to ensure that young people are learning more about climate change and what’s causing it, including by reintroducing a bill next year that would require climate change education in schools.
“I'm very glad to see it,” said Haas, referring to the new legislation. “Hopefully that's part of the governor's thinking on improving issues related to climate change in schools.”
The bill is one of dozens that Hochul has signed in recent weeks ahead of the legislative session’s end-of-year deadline.