&EPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
EPA 402-F-05-023
December 2005
HealthySEAT
Healthy School Environments Assessment Tool
Overview
EPA has developed a unique software tool to help
school districts1 evaluate and manage their school
facilities for key environmental, safety, and health
issues. The Healthy School Environments Assessment Tool
(HealthySEAT) is designed to be customized and used by
district-level staff to conduct completely voluntary self-
assessments of their school (and other) facilities and to
track and manage information on environmental
conditions school by school. In addition to powerful
software that can be used by districts to track any facility
issues it chooses, EPA has also included critical elements
of all of its regulatory and voluntary programs for
schools, as well as web links to more detailed
information. Districts and others can download
HealthySEAT at no cost from the EPA web site.
HealthySEAT is meant to be loaded and used on district
computers; once it is downloaded from the EPA web
site, HealthySEAT is yours to customize and use as you
see fit. There are no reporting requirements and no
obligation to use the checklist EPA has provided.
Improve the Health, Safety, and
Performance of Students and Staff
There are approximately 120,000 public, private,
charter, and tribal schools in the United States, and
many of them contain hazards that may pose risks to
children and staff. The guidance included in
HealthySEAT can improve the health of students and
staff by ensuring that all potential environmental and
safety hazards in schools are being properly managed.
Examples of school environmental hazards include
chemical releases, pesticide exposures, flaking lead paint,
mold and other indoor air quality problems, and
damaged asbestos-containing building materials.
HealthySEAT will help school districts identify and
correct hazards before they result in:
• health problems in students and staff such as
asthma attacks, lead poisoning, and other chemical
exposures;
• productivity and performance losses in students and
staff;
• school closures due to spills, accidents, or other
preventable environmental, health and safety issues;
• costly building clean-ups;
• regulatory enforcement actions by state or federal
agencies;
• community concern and resource-draining media
attention.
In addition, HealthySEAT will help school districts:
• Collect the kind of school- and hazard-specific data
necessary to make a compelling case for needed
renovation, repair, and maintenance dollars.
• Demonstrate to the community that your district
is committed to the health and safety of children
and staff.
HealthySEAT is meant to be loaded and
used on district computers; once it is
downloaded from the EPA web site,
HealthySEAT is yours to customize and use
as you see fit. There are no reporting
requirements and no obligation to use the
checklist EPA has provided.
*EPA is using the term "district" to broadly describe any institutional system for managing multiple schools, whether they are public, private, tribal, charter,
or some variation. While HealthySEAT is primarily geared toward K-12 school facilities, it may also be useful for colleges and universities as well as other
types of buildings.
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What does HealthySEAT Include?
HealthySEAT includes:
• AVffeb Page. School districts, states, tribes, and
others can download HealthySEAT at no charge and
obtain future updates. Visit www.epa.gov/schools.
• A User's Manual. Step-by-step instructions are
provided for customizing and using HealthySEAT.
• Tracking Software. The tracking software uses a
Runtime version of Microsoft Access and is self-
contained. Districts will not need to purchase new
software. An installation wizard will install
HealthySEAT on any district Windows-based
computer. Districts can install HealthySEAT on
their district network server if they wish; security
controlled access allows multiple users from
multiple locations without compromising data.
The software will help districts to manage all
aspects of a district-wide assessment program,
including generating letters to individual schools
pre-and post assessment visit, tracking the status of
facility conditions and corrective actions school-by-
school, and creating and generating reports for
district use. From within the tracking software, the
district will generate and print its own:
>• Customized Inspection Checklist. A customized
inspection checklist (as well as the Guidebook,
below) will be generated for the user, once she/
he decides which hazards the district chooses to
track in its assessment program by simply
clicking appropriate boxes in the customization
screens. All aspects of the tool can be easily
customized by school districts to reflect the
programs and requirements specifically
applicable to their schools. Districts choose
which hazards to integrate into their own
assessment programs, and can modify all of the
content as they see fit. The tool is designed so
that Districts can assess and track a virtually
unlimited number of facility conditions,
including non-environmental issues from
bathroom cleanliness to emergency response
plans, if it so chooses.
>• Customized Guidebook. Districts will be able
to print a more detailed customized Guidebook
that provides additional guidance on each of the
hazards the district has selected for inclusion on
its checklist for use by the assessor as well as
other school district staff.
How is HealthySEAT Organized?
The HealthySEAT software has three primary
components:
Customize for District — Allows the district to fully
customize the tool for district use, including adding
its own name and district logo, facilities, assessors, and
contacts for remediation, as well as tailoring the
content to district policies, programs, and priorities.
The district can also tailor the prioritization scheme
included with the tool, customize letters, and manage
security features, among other administrative
functions.
School-Specific Assessment Information — Allows the
district to enter and store information about every
assessment conducted at individual schools, track the
status of every recommendation, and generate
customized letters and reports to individual schools
pre- and post-visits.
Reports/Output Menu — Users can select from a
variety of report options that will organize and extract
information from the database such as Assessment
Findings by School, Recommendations by Topic/
Subtopic, etc.
^'>, U.S. Environmental Protection
HealthySEAT^
as*
While HealthySEAT is designed to allow full
customization of the content by school districts, the
software comes pre-loaded with a checklist that covers a
wide array of issues that school districts may wish to
assess for each of their schools.
The checklist included in HealthySEAT is organized by
the physical areas of the school to be assessed, the
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issue-specific topics and sub-topics for each area of the
school, and specific assessment actions that represent
the positive conditions that an assessor would look for
in each area.
Physical Areas of School
Central Office
Classrooms
Halls, Stairwells
Restrooms
Custodial Closets
Science Rooms and
Laboratories
Vis., Ind. Arts, Voc.
Education Rooms
Home Economics Rooms
Computer/ CADD Rooms
Music Rooms
Auditoriums
Cafeterias
Library/Media Center
Indoor Athletic Facilities
Attics, Mezzanines
Mechanical Rooms
Clinics
Grounds
Playgrounds
Outdoor Athletic Facilities
Building Exterior
Roof
Entrances and Exits
Break Rooms
Copy Rooms
Construction and renovation
Chemical management
Energy efficiency
Hazardous materials
Hazardous waste
Health, safety, and injury prevention
Indoor air quality
Moisture/mold control
Non-hazardous waste
Outdoor air pollution
Pest control/Integrated Pest Management
Portable/relocatable classrooms
Ultra-violet radiation
Water (drinking-, waste-, storm-, and -efficiency)
In addition to information on EPA programs,
HealthySEAT also includes information on health,
safety, and injury prevention, including:
• National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health (NIOSH) comprehensive Safety Checklist
Program for Schools, which contains
recommendations as well as detailed checklists on
Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) regulations which may be applicable to
schools;
• Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Division of
Adolescent and School Health (DASH)
recommendations based on the CDC/DASH
School Health Index; and
• Department of Education Safe and Drug Free
Schools Crisis Management program.
How is HealthySEAT Intended to be Used?
HealthySEAT is intended primarily as a tool for school
districts to use to periodically evaluate their school
facilities at a macro level to be sure that all of the
essential elements of key programs are being properly
managed school-by-school. Districts choose the
frequency with which they will conduct assessments,
though EPA recommends that an assessment be
conducted at each school at least annually. Districts
may conduct the assessments using district staff,
school-based staff, contractors, or a combination,
depending on their particular circumstances and
available resources.
The HealthySEAT software is designed specifically to
manage information on multiple buildings. For this
reason, the software itself is not intended to be used
by individual schools. However, the customized
checklist and guidebook developed by the district will
be a potentially valuable resource for school-based as
well as district staff.
It is important to note that HealthySEAT is not a
substitute for the day-to-day vigilance and good
practice that is required at every school to effectively
manage environmental, health, and safety issues in a
manner that protects children, staff, and the environ-
ment at all times.
Many states, tribes, and school districts are already
undertaking or encouraging school facility assess-
ments, and EPA has designed HealthySEAT so that
these states, tribes, and districts can easily incorporate
their own checklists into the software. During and
after the customization process, a simple toggle switch
allows districts to view and use either the district-
customized program or EPA-included assessment
actions.
EPA strongly encourages states and tribes to work
across the appropriate agencies to incorporate their
own requirements into HealthySEAT to help reduce
the duplication of effort required for each district to
independently research applicable requirements.
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Getting Started
1. Visit http://www.epa.gov/schools and click on
HealthySEAT.
2. Review the on-line "Getting Started" tutorial.
3. Download HealthySEAT.
4. Install on your Windows computer.
5. Customize for district policies and programs.
6. Use the customized HealthySEAT Checklist and
Guidebook to conduct periodic self-assessments of
school facility conditions.
Minimum System Requirements
Windows-based PC with Windows 2000 or XP Operating System
Pentium-compatible chip (233 MHz or higher), III Recommended
128+MB of RAM
Optimal screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels
Screen color quality (16-bit or better)
For Further Information
EPA Healthy School Environments Web Site:
http: //ep a. go v/scho ols
Bob Axelrad
EPA Office of Radiation and Indoor Air, Indoor
Environments Division
Axelrad.bob@epa.gov
Bill Jones
EPA Region 9
Jones.bill@epa.gov
Acknowledgements
EPA would like to acknowledge several organizations
that have provided invaluable assistance in the
development of HealthySEAT.
HealthySEAT is adapted from a database tool
originally developed by the Los Angeles Unified
School District (LAUSD), Office of Environmental
Health and Safety, to conduct self-assessment
inspections in its approximately 900 school
facilities. EPA has made substantial modifications to
the tool in order to make it widely available to the
more than 14,000 school districts nationwide.
The checklist provided with HealthySEAT was
developed by EPA, and draws from many such
resources that have been developed across the country.
A comprehensive draft checklist in development by
the Indoor Environments Section of the Ohio
Department of Health was particularly helpful in
organizing the areas of the school to be assessed.
EPA also received extremely valuable input during the
development of HealthySEAT from a number of
organizations that field tested or otherwise reviewed
the Beta version of the software or provided content
included with the tool.
• Maryland Department of Environment
• Carroll County, Maryland School District
• Pennsylvania Department of Health
• Harrisburg, PA City School District
• Miami-Dade County Public Schools
• Milwaukee Public Schools
• State of Wisconsin. Bureau of Environmental and
Occupational Health
• Katy Independent School District, Katy, Texas
• Salt Lake City School District
• Visalia Unified School District, Visalia, California
• Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency
• Universidad del Turabo, Puerto Rico
• Minnesota Department of Health
• U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
• U.S. Department of Education
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Centers for Disease Control
• Healthy Schools Network
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