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This chapter explains why Plyler v. Doe is an important court case, even if not many people have heard of it or understand its holding: to allow schoolchildren without legal status to enroll in public schools. The decision, written by Justice William Brennan, substantially improved the lives of these children and their parents, even if the parents were still at risk of deportation. For undocumented immigrants, it is the most beneficial decision ever rendered by the U.S. Supreme Court, and it remains good, if unexamined, law today.

This chapter discusses the use of coloured filters to treat reading difficulties, and the theoretical and practical claims that underpin it. It reviews evidence for the efficacy of coloured filters, and reports the results of a new trial in schoolchildren with reading difficulties. It concludes that there is a chasm between the dramatic claims often made for this treatment, and the small and inconsistent effects that have been demonstrated experimentally. Coloured filters have no proven efficacy beyond some probable placebo effect, and their use should not be recommended to private individuals, or supported by public bodies. Resources should instead be directed towards better-proven remedial interventions.

This chapter discusses two separate but related aspects of the school environment: population, in relation to both class size and the size of the school, and crowding. Overcrowding affects the performance and well-being of both students and teachers. Regardless of school size, overcrowding is a concern if the school is beyond its intended capacity. Population issues relate to both class size and the size of the school. Crowding is both a subjective experience and a measurable condition. Crowded conditions can be alleviated by modifying school size, class size, and furniture arrangements.

This chapter describes the breadth of the impact that lighting has on the health, well-being, and performance of schoolchildren and staff. Good lighting design can improve health and learning as well as increase safety, reduce vandalism, lower energy use, and help students maintain visual connections with the environment. In contrast, bad lighting design contributes negatively to these issues. A holistic approach to optimal lighting includes provision of daylight and views in all classrooms and work areas, integration of daylight and electric lighting, and the addition of flexible lighting controls. Causes of lighting problems include insufficient or unbalanced light, glare, unnatural lamp characteristics, and annoying side effects. Careful planning early in the building design results in a healthy lighting system while frequent system assessment ensures consistent performance.

This chapter examines the nonauditory effect of noise on children, that is, the effect of noise apart from hearing loss. Noise sources can be external (e.g., roads, trains, aircraft) or internal (e.g., resulting from poor acoustic designs for classrooms, normal classroom activities, and ambient sources such as HVAC systems). Both acute and chronic noisy conditions influence learning. Noise affects communication between teachers and students, motivation, attention, memory, and thus academic achievement. A noisy school environment can be a source of stress for both children and teachers. Most efforts to reduce noise are directed at the classroom. Careful school design and modification can alleviate noisy conditions in and around the building.

This chapter begins by tracing the history of playgrounds and exploring the philosophies behind the changes. Two major themes emerge. First, playgrounds should be places where children can play without incurring serious injury. Second, playgrounds should be spaces that support healthy child development through the process of active play, learning, and exploration. With regard to playground safety, the chapter reviews trends in injuries and fatalities and presents prevention strategies. Finally, case studies of community-based efforts to create playgrounds and school parks that meet both sets of goals are discussed. Focusing on elementary schools serving children four-twelve years of age (prekindergarten to sixth grade), the chapter offers suggestions on how to optimize playgrounds as educational and developmental settings that are safe for all children.

This chapter discusses outdoor air pollution in school environments. Outdoor (ambient) air pollution presents a number of issues in the school environment, including exposure of children to diesel exhaust from older buses, potential risks for students who play or exercise outdoors on smoggy days, and exposure to emissions from nearby traffic and industrial facilities. There are steps that school administrators can take to protect children and address pollution. These include limiting outdoor activities on high ozone days, keeping students indoors for recess and practices, and contacting the air pollution control authority with any concerns about sources of pollution very close to the school, and discuss the record of the polluting facility.

This chapter reviews some of the toxic hazards that children might encounter in and around their schools. It discusses the ways in which a child might be exposed, as well as the possible effects of the exposures, and reviews strategies to reduce risks and manage the exposures if they do occur.

The trip to school is very much a part of the school environment. Two aspects of this trip bear directly on children's health and safety: the risk of injuries during the journey and the opportunity for health promotion through physically active travel such as walking and bicycling. This chapter addresses the first set of concerns. It briefly describes the risks of school travel and offers suggestions for reducing or minimizing them. The emphasis is on “getting it right” by those who are involved. Several checklists are offered for consideration of the types of actions that might reduce the risks associated with the most common means of school travel. Much of the information in the chapter is drawn from a report published by the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Research Council, titled The Relative Risks of School Travel: A National Perspective and Guidance for Local Community Risk Assessment.

This chapter discusses issues associated with the care of children with asthma by school personnel. A close partnership built on open communication and preparedness is necessary among school personnel, parents, and health professionals in order to optimize outcomes for children with asthma in the school environment. School personnel should be able to recognize the signs and symptoms of an asthma attack, assess its severity, and initiate treatment. Children with asthma must have ready access to a reliever (rescue) medication that is inhaled to relieve symptoms. School professionals also have a role in prevention.

School environments provide ideal conditions for transmission of infectious diseases. This chapter discusses the prevention and control of infectious diseases in schools. Because infectious diseases are transmitted primarily by direct contact with hands, a stringent hand-washing program can be effective in reducing transmission. The most effective prevention strategies must also encompass regular environmental cleaning, comprehensive animal policies, immunizations, isolation of infected people, and mass prophylaxis in some cases.

This chapter focuses on the accounts of Annie (Wood) Besant. Annie Wood came from a comfortably well-to-do family. She was intelligent and well-educated. At the age of nineteen, she married Rev. Frank Besant. Her marriage to him led to Annie's awakening to the legal and social disabilities of women. She eventually separated from her husband, who won the custody of their two children. Robbed of her own children, Annie started to search for a way to help others. She became a national public speaker and advocated for better working conditions and practices in the labor industry, birth control, the abolishment of school fees, and more meals for schoolchildren. After being active for fifteen years in different branches of British radicalism, Annie converted to Theosophy. She became a leader of the Theosophy movement and became a dominant figure in Indian nationalism during the First World War. In this chapter, the focus is on Annie's account of money, prices, wages, and rent.

British administrators and Egyptian nationalists subjected elite Egyptian schoolchildren to a reform of their personal behavior that was designed to fit the needs of the Egyptian state—both as it transformed itself and as it struggled to liberate itself from the British. British government officials called for the creation of more productive, more modern Egyptians to serve the state. The classroom became the laboratory in which Egyptian youth learned and practiced new habits, behaviors, and relationships. The most basic lesson which turn-of-the-century Egyptian children learned was that their cultural traditions were responsible for Egypt's backwardness and its subsequent occupation. Teachers of all subjects taught Egyptian children that only when they learned and practiced a new set of traditions in their private and public lives would they be capable of accompanying Egypt into a modern and independent age.

This chapter examines how parents manage the gap between the end of the school day and the end of the typical workday; discusses the consequences of those child care choices for a child's health, safety, and development; and considers historical and recent efforts to address the child care needs of school-age children. It suggests that a solution to the problem of providing care for school-age children is attainable in the near future and may constitute a first step toward a universal system of care for children of all ages.

This chapter highlights how children 5–12 years of age perceive the world—connecting this development with their media preferences. Since five-year-olds and nine-year-olds look at the world very differently, this age period is divided into two groups: young elementary schoolchildren (5–7 years old) and preadolescents (8–12). For both groups, the chapter discusses the most significant developmental changes and connects these changes with media preferences. For example, what is the “spinach syndrome”? What sort of humor do children in both age groups prefer? Why do children recognize bad acting only at around eight years? Why does collecting become important to children in this period? And when and why does the peer group emerge as a key context?

This chapter discusses a scientific analysis conducted by the Southern California Environmental Justice Collaborative. This community-based participatory research project, focusing on environmental health in Los Angeles schools, used secondary data analysis to answer scientific questions that informed policy advocacy and the organizing strategies of community partners. The chapter also presents quantitative results from the analysis on environmental inequality in exposure to ambient-air toxics and associated health risks among schoolchildren. It examines the implications of this work for regional and state policy, and the possibility of better application of the precautionary principle to issues of environmental justice. Integrating environmental justice and the precautionary principle is essential to protect vulnerable populations and eliminate persistent racial and class-based disparities in environmental hazard exposures and health outcomes.