Last Tuesday, a bill addressing air quality problems in schools was passed by the Rhode Island Senate Health and Human Services Committee. The legislation — which was also introduced in 2025 — will require inspections of school HVAC systems, replace outdated filters and require the Department of Health to set standards for air quality in schools.
Air quality issues can cause respiratory illnesses that may result in increased student absences according to Emma Blankstein ’26, who has previously researched air quality in schools. Additionally, once pollutants reach a certain level, students can have decreased attention and test score performance, she explained.
Blankstein noted that poor air quality can also cause asthma attacks. In Rhode Island, 12.2% of adults and 8.5% of children have asthma, compared to the national average of 10.8% and 6.5% respectively, according to the American Lung Association.
“The average age of Providence school buildings is around 75-years-old, which means the infrastructure is aging,” Blankstein added. “There is really a need within the community to know what’s in the air in schools and also to really take concrete steps to improve the air in schools.”
Providence “has a lot of air quality concerns, especially in low-income neighborhoods,” said Sunrise Brown member Flo Dapice ’29. “It’s really important that students have good air quality because it’s an environmental justice concern” that disproportionately harms low income schools and children, she said.
To advocate for the bill, Sunrise members helped students write testimonies that they read before the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, said Dapice. The letter advocates for indoor air quality guidelines and routine inspections, as well as an upgrade from MERV-11 to MERV-13 HVAC filters, which are currently the national standard.
According to Dapice, one of the reasons why Sunrise decided to advocate for the bill as it is “at the intersection of environmentalism, justice and inequality.”
The bill would mandate “common sense, basic things” that Blankstein believes “will make a difference for students in schools. But it “is not the end all be all,” she added.
While “there’s more work to do, I think this is probably the first step,” Professor of Environment and Society and Sociology Scott Frickel said in an interview with The Herald. “The next step would be raising money to put indoor air monitors in schools so that there’s a continuous record of changes.”
While air monitoring is “not cheap or free,” Frickel noted that many Boston schools have these monitoring systems.
“With so many of our schools either sitting on top of or adjacent to former industrial sites, there’s a whole host of concerns related to vapor intrusion from chemical plumes,” he added. About one in four Rhode Island schools are within a quarter mile of an industrial pollution site — more than triple the national average.
“The health and well-being of our students and staff is always a priority at our schools,” Providence Public School District spokesperson Alex Torres-Perez wrote in a statement to The Herald.
“Clean air is fundamental to a healthy learning environment,” she said, adding that the PPSD, the Rhode Island Department of Education, and the City of Providence are working on a $1 billion project to ensure every student attends a new or “like-new” school by 2030.
Torres-Perez added that PPSD is “committed to maintaining safe and healthy facilities” and “working collaboratively with our partners to ensure our classrooms support the success and well-being of every student.”
Nate Barkow is a senior staff writer for the Youth and Education beat and a co-chief of The Herald's social media team. He is from New York City and plans on concentrating in International and Public Affairs and Education Studies. In his free time, he loves trying new restaurants and watching Survivor.
