We look forward to kicking off the 2020-2021 school year together with you. As always, the health and safety of our staff, students and families is our number one priority.
Properly ventilated classrooms are key to our reopening our schools safely. We have been working around the clock to ensure that every school has been carefully surveyed for ventilation by consulting engineers under the direction of the New York City School Construction Authority. The results of your child’s school building ventilation survey will be posted on the individual school page on our website, on the Overview tab, under Building Ventilation Information.
We found that the ventilation in more than 95 percent of our classrooms is in good working order. Out of the 64,000 classrooms we surveyed, fewer than 3,000 had issues. These results for individual schools are preliminary and are intended to help focus our repair and maintenance efforts. They do not indicate any space’s ability to open, as we are continuing to repair and correct any outstanding ventilation issues.
The DOE will make repairs or improvements with rooms prior to opening, and/or will close any rooms until repairs are made. A room requires at least one functioning method of ventilation to be cleared for occupancy. This could be a window that opens, a type of mechanical ventilation (exhaust fan, supply fan, unit ventilator) or a combination of the both. Ongoing updates will be provide as repairs or improvements are made.
Any room that does not meet our stringent safety standards will not be used for instructional purposes unless it is repaired or remediated. We want to remind you that while ventilation is essential to our COVID-19 prevention plan, it is only one part of a comprehensive strategy to keep our students, educators, and staff members safe inside and outside our schools.
Please do not hesitate to reach out to your school with any questions or concerns. Please also note that if a significant number of rooms in your child’s school have issues regarding ventilation, you will receive additional information from your principal.
Understanding Your School’s Report
The survey assesses whether various systems of ventilation are working properly and provides results in five areas:
- Windows: ”Yes” indicates that the space has windows. “‘No’ indicates that the space does not have windows.
- At Least One Window Can be Opened: ”Yes” indicates that the room can be ventilated using a window.
- Supply Fan: Identifies rooms that have a mechanical device (fan) that delivers air to a space.” Operational” means that the space has a working supply fan to provide ventilation.” Partly operational” or “not operational” identifies spaces supply fans that need repair. "Doesn't Exist" means there is no supply fan. "Cannot Access" means supply fan was not accessible at the time of the visit.
- Exhaust Fan: A mechanical device (fan) that force out stale indoor air so it can be replaced by fresh air. “Operational” means that the space has a working exhaust fan to provide ventilation. “Partly operational” or “not operational” identifies spaces with exhaust fans that need repair. "Doesn't Exist" means there is no exhaust fan. "Cannot Access" means exhaust fan was not accessible at the time of the visit.
- Unit Ventilator: A mechanical device that circulates conditioned air to desired spaces.” Operational” means that the space has a working unit ventilator to provide ventilation. “Partly operational” or “not operational” identifies spaces with unit ventilators that need repair. "Doesn't Exist" means there is no unit ventilator. "Cannot Access" means unit ventilator was not accessible at the time of the visit.
In addition, the report includes the following fields:
- Room Number: the space’s assigned room number. Your school can let you know the room number for your child.
- Primary Usage: identified the purpose of the space. Spaces that are used by students or staff are ”student-staff space.” Others, such as storage closets, are ”building support space.”
- Comments: These are additional notes made by the inspector for the school custodial engineer.
We want to assure you that we are completing repairs on an aggressive timeline and that any repairs that aren’t complete before the first day of full-time teaching and learning will not be used. We are working daily to protect our students, families, and educators.