Hot classrooms, playgrounds spur K-12 school districts to go beyond AC for cooling

With hotter weather occurring during the school year, school districts are turning to cooling strategies to complement air conditioning.

Reflective playgrounds and roads, cool roofs and window films, shade structures and conversion of asphalt surfaces to a natural state are all being tried in various regions of the country. These measures are particularly important to help children cope with extreme heat because they sweat less and are more prone to dehydration than adults.

Some examples:

• A Los Angeles school district has spent $11.4 million to convert asphalt shingle roofs to white cool roofing since 2017.
• An Atlanta school received a donation from a roofing manufacturer of a bright blue, solar-reflective coating that reduced the temperature on a basketball court by 10 degrees.
• Between 2022 and 2023, California granted more than $121 million for schools to replace asphalt or turf or rubber mats with grass, gardens, mulch, and trees.

More projects like those will be necessary if climate-change-induced heat continues to rise as predicted.