As students head back to school this year, families should be focused on buying notebooks, meeting teachers, and preparing for a successful school year—not worrying whether classrooms are too hot to learn in, whether wildfire smoke will make it unsafe to breathe, or whether storms and floods will disrupt their education.

Climate change is making extreme weather more frequent, more intense, and longer-lasting. Dangerous heat, wildfire smoke, flooding, and severe storms are increasingly affecting schools long after summer is supposed to end.

Across the country, students are returning to classrooms that were never designed for today's climate realities.

Many schools lack adequate air conditioning, forcing students and teachers to endure dangerously hot classrooms, affecting their ability to learn. Children are missing recess, which is important to development, when extreme heat or air pollution make it unsafe to play outside. Student athletes practice in dangerous temperatures and poor air quality conditions that can lead to serious illness or worse.

At the same time, school districts and colleges are facing rising costs to prepare facilities to withstand extreme weather, plan for disruption and protect students. Schools face growing risks from flooding and severe storms that can damage facilities, interrupt classes, and require costly emergency planning and infrastructure upgrades.

Students deserve safe schools. Teachers and school staff deserve safe workplaces.
Parents deserve confidence that their children can learn without being put at risk by extreme weather. We cannot afford to ignore these growing threats.

We call on Congress to:
- Invest in school infrastructure that protects students and staff from extreme heat, wildfire smoke, flooding, and severe storms.
- Establish strong health and safety protections for students and student athletes during extreme heat and poor air quality events.
- Support policies that reduce climate pollution and address the root causes of worsening extreme weather.
- Fund FEMA’s budget and adequate staffing levels to prepare for extreme weather.

Every child deserves a safe place to learn. Every teacher deserves a safe place to work. Every family deserves the peace of mind that comes from knowing their school is prepared for the challenges of a changing climate.