High Heat

Climate Resilience and Adaptation Toolkit

Overview

As a result of climate change, California is already being impacted by higher average temperatures and longer, more frequent, more severe heat waves. These impacts are projected to worsen in the coming years and decades. According to the California Natural Resources Agency, extreme heat “refers to temperatures that are well above normal conditions [for a given area], and extreme heat events are consecutive unusually hot days and nights for a given area.” Specifically, extreme heat days are those days above the 98th percentile of maximum temperatures, based on 1961-1990 data for a given location’s warmest months. Average temperatures are rising, but each region of California will experience these changes differently. And, extreme heat intersects with and exacerbates other forms of inequity, including racial-based achievement gaps, meaning already-vulnerable and historically disenfranchised communities are at greater risk.

High indoor temperatures have a direct impact on student learning. Multiple studies have shown that students perform incrementally worse on tests with every degree increase in temperature rise. These discrepancies are nearly erased when air conditioning is installed, but that is not available in every classroom in California. Children are also more vulnerable to the impacts of extreme heat than adults. Physiologically, their bodies are less able to regulate their temperature and are more likely to experience symptoms of heat stress and heat exhaustion.

Outdoor extreme heat is also of great concern. After-school sports, recess, and physical education class can become dangerous on hot days. Most schools lack adequate shade, particularly schools in low-income communities. And researchers have documented surface temperatures of 145 degrees Fahrenheit and above on school yards across California. Outdoor learning, play, and sport is important for children’s health, wellbeing, and learning. So it’s critical to balance this need with creating safe outdoor conditions for our students.

As our climate warms and our schools experience longer, more frequent, more severe extreme heat events, school districts can do a lot to adapt to extreme heat indoors and outdoors:

The most important indoor extreme heat adaptation and resilience measure is installing electric HVAC systems that ensure adequate cooling and ventilation in classrooms. Schools can also use cool roof paintings and materials to reflect heat and keep buildings cooler.
For outdoor extreme heat, there are a number of adaptation and resilience measures. These include installing shade trees and shade structures where children learn and play outside to ensure adequate shade on hot days; removing heat-absorbing materials like asphalt and replacing them with nature-based solutions that keep grounds cooler; and establishing recommendations for outdoor activities based on temperature limits

LEA Action Examples for High Heat

Pasadena Unified School District

To mitigate outdoor extreme heat and promote safe and healthy learning and play environments, Pasadena USD is designing and implementing green spaces that prioritize opportunities for students to learn, connections to community-based partners, and transforming asphalt to natural green spaces.

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Open Door: Mitigating Outdoor Extreme Heat with Schoolyard Greening (Watch from 20:48 to 33:39)

Long Beach Unified School District

Under their district-wide sustainability plan, LBUSD is adding and improving wellness and green spaces, adding and preserving shade, rehabbing landscape, and investing in numerous other interim extreme heat mitigation tactics.

Learn More

Open Door: Mitigating Outdoor Extreme Heat with Schoolyard Greening (Watch from 33:40 to 51:35)

Santa Maria Bonita School District

Santa Maria-Bonita School District added solar panels to every site in the district – all 21, including the district office – which will power all thirteen campuses' new HVAC systems.

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California IRA Fact Sheet

Explore Your Data

Explore the data for your region regarding high heat. Note that some counties may include different biomes (coastal, urban, forest, dessert, agricultural lands, etc.) - explore impacts by biome here.

Climate Impacts Data

Additional Resources to Explore

UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation

The Policy Forum for Heat Resilient Schools, which took place on December 12, 2023, was hosted by UndauntedK12, Ten Strands, and the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation (LCI) hosted a Policy Forum for Heat Resilient Schools sharing the latest research and policy recommendations to address indoor and outdoor extreme heat.

The policy brief recommends specific research and policy actions to help advance the goals identified in the California Extreme Heat Action Plan, as well as the equity goal set by the state’s Quality Schooling Framework — that “all students are able to learn and thrive.” The five action areas and associated research recommendations build on existing findings.

HVAC Choices for Student Health and Learning

“HVAC Choices for Student Health and Learning,” shares big ideas relating to school HVAC technology, offers a framework for evaluating costs and obtaining funding, and provides an overview of the benefits that come with all-electric HVAC systems.

Three takeaways from the report:

HVAC systems are a cornerstone of healthy and comfortable schools that support student well-being and academic performance.
Schools, students & communities benefit from modern HVAC systems that are all electric and high performance.
School leaders have a generational opportunity to choose all-electric, high-performance HVAC systems thanks to new funding opportunities, most notably, the Inflation Reduction Act.

Trauma Informed Practices (TIP) and High Heat

Experiencing the ongoing chronic pressures of high heat or an acute heat dome can be traumatic for the children, adolescents, and adults within a school community. It is important to consider how to best integrate trauma informed practices into the phases of emergency preparedness, and to equip classroom educators and administrators with the tools they need to implement trauma informed practices with students and families. Explore resources and implementation tools at the Resource Center for Environmental and Climate Action in Schools.

Climate TIP Resources

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