Millions of American students attend classes within a quarter mile of an environmental hazard site, and nearly half of public and private schools are within a mile of such a site—a fact that could have long-term consequences for students’ health and learning, according to new research.
Black, Native American, Hispanic, and low-income students were significantly more likely than their white and high-income peers to attend schools within a quarter mile of a hazardous site polluted by toxins like lead, arsenic, mercury, asbestos, and more, according to the new working paper by researchers at Brown University published in January by the Annenberg Institute.
Kids spend nearly a quarter of their waking hours at school, “making school grounds a critical yet often overlooked source of environmental exposure,” the study says. The toxins found at the environmental hazard sites, generally contaminated by years of industrial activity, have been associated with high cancer risk, immune system disruptions, birth defects, chronic illnesses, and cardiovascular conditions—as well as poorer academic performance and a higher likelihood of students requiring special education services.
Nearly 10,000 schools (8% of public and private schools in the United States) enrolling about 3.4 million students and employing 480,000 staff members are located within a quarter mile of a hazardous site where exposure risk is most acute. Approximately 44% of schools are located within one mile, a distance at which research has also shown negative exposure effects.
“Those findings really shocked us,” said Matthew Kraft, a professor of education and economics who authored the report alongside research associate Sohil Malik and project director Grace Falken. “This data shows this should be a topic that is a central part of our discussion of how we support teaching and learning in our public and private schools.”
Previous studies have shown that environmental hazards are disproportionately concentrated in high-poverty areas and communities with large shares of racial minorities, the report noted. Those patterns likely extend to schools and could contribute to educational inequities, Kraft said.
And, although the pollutants originate outdoors, they can infiltrate schools through windows and ventilation systems, and affect children as they play outside or walk to and from school, Kraft noted.
“This doesn’t mean that schools should be trying to take on the industrial manufacturing system, but it does mean we need to think hard about how and where we build school buildings, how we monitor air and water quality, and what types of local conversations we have about zoning so these places aren’t within a very short distance of a school,” Kraft said.
For their analysis, the researchers essentially combined maps of known environmental hazard sites tracked by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with the geographic coordinates of both public and private schools. The report notes that the method captures geographic proximity but does not fully capture the “complex and varied dynamics” of exposure to pollutants, such as how weather might accelerate or the release of pollutants or concentrate them, which could influence students’ exposure.
Including all students and staff, approximately 3.85 million people (1% of the U.S. population) spend their days at schools within a quarter mile of an environmental hazard site. That number grows to 24.6 million people (7% of the U.S. population) when the range is extended to 1 mile. There was no significant difference in exposure risk between public and private schools, researchers found.
The risks are highest for nonwhite and low-income students, according to the research. Compared to their white peers, Native American, Black, and Hispanic students are 124%, 86%, and 43% more likely, respectively, to attend a school located within a quarter mile of a hazard site.
The researchers also found significant disparities based on socioeconomic status.
Students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch are 40% more likely than their peers to attend a school located within a quarter mile of a hazard site. English learners were about 21% more likely than non-English learners to attend schools close to a polluted site.
And students in cities are more likely than their counterparts in towns, suburbs, and rural communities to attend a school a quarter mile or less away from a contaminated site.
“It certainly was our hypothesis that there would be inequities, given existing research about where these industries often locate and systems that have historically shaped communities,” Kraft said, “but what we found was starker than what we may have anticipated.”
By U.S. Census region, schools in the Northeast (11.6%) and Midwest (10.2%) are most likely to be located within a quarter mile of an environmental hazard site. Schools in the West (8.0%) and South (5.1%) are less likely to be near these sites.
When broken down by state, the percentage of schools located within a quarter mile of a hazard site ranged from about 3.1% in Texas to about 26.3% in Rhode Island.
