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Highlights teacher concerns about indoor air quality and safety in schools, suggesting action for better health measures.
Few studies focus on levels of concern among teachers regarding safety and health (S&H) such as indoor air quality and related environmental S&H topics in K-12 schools. Between October 2021 and June 2023, the New Jersey (NJ) Safe Schools Program provided work-based learning training to 163 newer NJ public secondary career and technical education teachers and asked them to complete online surveys regarding school S&H during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were 205 total survey entries out of 436 possible entries from multiple surveys (two surveys plus a follow-up survey in fall 2022 for those trained in 2021-22 SY). This paper focuses on concerns and perceptions of teacher S&H in physical workplaces with or without ventilation; perceived safety of cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting products (CSDPs); and who is responsible for school S&H. About half of the participants were “very concerned/concerned” about the health effects of CSDPs, and most believed principals are responsible for school S&H. School administrators and principals should take teacher concerns into account to develop, with safety professionals, relevant procedures, including for CSDP use, and provide adequate mechanical ventilation in classrooms.
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Shendell et al. (2026) studied this question.
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