Public Health Law and the Built Environment in American Public Schools: Detailed History with Policy Analysis

Education, in the United States, is accomplished through a highly fragmented system of school districts nested within sovereign states governed by locally elected school boards. The laws governing the built environment in American public schools are fragmented horizontally (between states) and vertically (federal, state, county, local). This fragmentation has resulted in a national system of public schools with a loosely regulated environment that compels exposure of over 50 million students each day to known health hazards with the resultant marginal health costs absorbed by society. This book explores the history of the built environment in American public schools and how the common schoolhouse devolved into national system of locally controlled public school buildings that compel its occupants to exposures in environments worse than those acceptable in private workplaces. Policies related to domains in the built environment are analyzed and alternative policies are recommended. This book would be a valuable resource for anyone at the local, state or federal level interested in cost-effective policies related to the built environment in American public schools.