School Siting Guidelines (English Edition)

Who Should Use the Guidelines? These voluntary guidelines are intended to assist local school districts, which will be referred to throughout these guidelines as the local education agency (LEA) (see Section 10), and community members in evaluating environmental factors to make the best possible school siting decisions. The special vulnerabilities of children and considerations for children's health underpin the recommendations contained in these guidelines, consistent with EISA, Subtitle E—Healthy High-Performance Schools, Section 502. While the guidelines are primarily intended to be used by LEAs in evaluating and selecting locations for K-12 schools, EPA believes that the recommendations in the guidelines represent a set of best practices that inform and improve evaluation and selection decisions for a wide range of settings where children spend time. Although there are many differences in how locations are chosen across the types of child-occupied facilities, the practices recommended within the guidelines may be applied, with appropriate adaptation, to a wide range of school-related institutions.