Indoor Air Quality and Healthy Schools Act of 2025
The Indoor Air Quality and Healthy Schools Act of 2025 would authorize the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to run a national program focused on assessing, reducing, and avoiding exposure to indoor air contaminants to protect human health. The bill sets up a framework for identifying contaminants of concern, developing science-based guidelines, and promoting voluntary certifications and model building provisions. It places special emphasis on buildings used by local educational agencies (LEAs) and covered childcare facilities, including schools and childcare centers. The act would also support funding, technical assistance, and coordination with other federal agencies to advance better indoor air quality (IAQ), with a focus on disadvantaged communities and climate-change resilience. Key features include a formal list of indoor contaminants of concern (with an initial minimum list that includes particulate matter, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, formaldehyde, and radon), voluntary guidelines and health-based concentration limits when scientifically feasible, and regular reviews. It also creates options for voluntary Healthy Building Certifications, model provisions for building design and maintenance, a national IAQ assessment for schools and childcare facilities, and funding mechanisms (grants and technical assistance) to implement IAQ improvements at the state, local, and tribal levels. In addition, the bill directs a feasibility study by the National Academy of Sciences on an indoor air quality index (IAQ index) and authorizes substantial annual appropriations through 2030 to carry out these activities.
Key Points
- 1Establishes an EPA-run Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) program to assess, reduce, and prevent exposure to indoor air contaminants, including development of a contaminant-of-concern list and science-based, voluntary guidelines; may set health-based concentration limits where evidence exists.
- 2Creates a national IAQ assessment program for buildings used by local educational agencies and covered childcare facilities, with an advisory group and updates every five years; requires reporting to Congress and guidance to improve IAQ in schools and childcare sites.
- 3Authorizes voluntary Healthy Building Certifications and recommends model provisions for building design, operation, and maintenance (ventilation, filtration, control measures) to be used by states and local jurisdictions; allows for third-party administration and requires consideration of energy efficiency and compatibility with existing building codes.
- 4Provides IAQ assistance in the form of grants and technical support to states, LEAs, tribal entities, housing authorities, and other groups; funding can support education, monitoring, benchmarking, and adaptation to climate-change-related IAQ risks, with a federal cost share not to exceed 75%.
- 5Commissioning a National Academy of Sciences study on an indoor air quality index, including methodologies, data inputs, real-time sensor feasibility, and limitations; potential development of an accessible index for public communication; $1,000,000 authorized for the NAS study.