Climate change is prolonging the heat season in Phoenix. That means dangerous temperatures are stretching longer into the school year in the fall and spring. An Arizona State University initiative called HeatReady Schools is trying to help schools adapt.
“It looks different for each school,” said ASU School of Sustainability associate professor Jennifer Vanos.
Vanos said the HeatReady Schools team offers free consultations to help each participating school develop its own tailored strategies to keep students and staff safer in extreme weather.
“We sit down and look at ways they are doing certain recommended actions that would keep the students, staff and faculty deal with the heat in a relatively easier way so that heat doesn’t disrupt the school day so much,” Vanos said.
About 45 Phoenix-area schools and several California schools have participated since 2021, most of which have been elementary schools.
Vanos said elementary-aged students can be more susceptible to heat-related illness because younger kids might not have the awareness to drink water, seek shade or recognize how hot they’re getting.
“All of these different things that we as adults kind of do automatically, kids should be doing, but they don't quite have the agency to do it or know what they're really feeling,” Vanos said.
Vanos said teaching students and school staff about the health risks of heat is an important aspect of the program.
“One of the things we're really pushing and trying to create more of is training, both for the kids and for the teacher, so that they're able to kind of identify or lessen the likelihood of heat illness,” Vanos said.
Vanos said the goal of a school heat safety plan should not necessarily be to keep kids inside all day — kids need time to exercise and play, she said.
“It helps kids to be ready to learn, get their wiggles out. It helps the teachers get a little bit of a break,” Vanos said.
So the program suggests strategies for determining when short outdoor recesses are safe and when it’s too hot to go outside. And it offers alternative ideas for letting kids get exercise indoors on days when outdoor temperatures are deemed unsafe.
Vanos said the HeatReady team also helps schools develop plans to create more shade for playgrounds or school drop-off zones.
Small changes, Vanos said, can make a big difference for heat safety.
“A program like this is designed to make the workday and the school day easier on people, not to be seen as an added burden on their time,” Vanos said. “It does take a little bit of upfront initiative to get things in place, but then all of a sudden the heat day doesn't feel so bad.”
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