New guidelines aimed at helping schools make better decisions about the health of students during wildfire season are going into effect.
“These guidelines are coming just in time, just in time for fire season and the 2019-2020 school year,” said North Coast state Sen. Mike McGuire in Sacramento this week.
He said after last year’s fires and the large swaths of the state blanketed by wildfire smoke, “It became crystal clear to us that we need data.”
“We knew that action had to be taken,” McGuire said, later adding, “We know that California’s next wildfire is not a matter of if, but when.”
McGuire stressed that this will help open up conversations about health for students amid the growing wildfire threats the state faces.
How to see the air quality level in your neighborhood during California wildfire season and beyond. Here’s our guide to California air quality resources.
“Ultimately, it’s going to be up to the parent to send their child to school on those unhealthy school days,” McGuire said. “What we have seen across this state, especially after the Camp Fire, is haphazard decisions were made. They did not have the guidelines in place.”
The guidelines are expected to help schools across the state determine what is the right response when wildfire smoke is prevalent. Woodland, for example, along with other schools far out of the fire zones were blanketed by smokey air, which forced students — along with everyone else — to take precautions such as wearing masks.
Woodland Joint Unified School District canceled classes for one day last year when the smoke became too heavy.
Debra Harris, burn program coordinator for the North Coast Unified Air Quality Management District, which monitors air quality for Trinity, Humboldt and Del Norte counties, said it was not a new idea. In fact, the district has had similar guidelines for years.
“We have substituted this chart for our previous one,” she said Tuesday of the new guidelines. “There has been a chart used in our district (for years). We do believe the charts are beneficial and give the schools a basis to evaluate the needs of the students.”
Last week, the district sent out the new guidelines to all the Humboldt County school districts. The guidelines break down air quality levels into five groups with level 5 being the most hazardous.
“School districts may consider school closers based on site-by-site concerns,” the level 5 recommendation states. It also urges no outdoor activity or sporting events are a good idea when those conditions persist. In contrast, level 1 conditions have no restrictions for outdoor activities such as physical education.
Harris said in addition to providing information to schools, the district sends out alerts and advisories with information about air quality throughout fire season so residents can know what’s best for their own health.
“We use everything but the kitchen sink to put the best product out there,” she said. “We use all the resources we can get.”
Health officials have not yet reviewed the new guidelines but said historically it has been a collaborative effort between the school districts and the health department to make decisions about smoky conditions and the health of students.
Butte County Office of Education board member Mike Walsh was on hand Tuesday for the announcement of the new guidelines and stressed that it helps both educators and parents make better decisions about students’ health.
“We want kids in school and we want them there safely,” he said Tuesday morning. “If these help the parents understand how we make the decisions with these fires that are all too common these days, then it is well worth the effort and we appreciate that.”
Daily Democrat staff contributed to this report.
