Senator Bruce E. Tarr filed Senate No. 542 on Jan. 9, 2025, a bill titled "An Act to ensure the health and safety of the commonwealth’s students and educators" that would add Section 117A to Chapter 149 of the General Laws to require minimum ventilation standards, statewide pooled COVID-19 surveillance testing, and guaranteed access to personal protective equipment in public schools.

The bill would require school ventilation systems, within two years after the law’s effective date, to provide in each occupied space at least one of: a minimum of 4 air changes per hour of fresh air; a minimum of 20 cubic feet per minute of outdoor air per person; or a maximum indoor carbon dioxide concentration of 800 parts per million. It sets occupied-space temperature limits (66–78°F) and defines terms such as "portable air cleaner," "filtered air," and "ventilation system."

Under a declared pandemic the bill would raise requirements: ventilation sufficient to reduce airborne transmission by 95% using fresh air, portable HEPA cleaners, or "advanced technologies" (for example, ultraviolet germicidal irradiation or bipolar ionization, as defined in the text); nurses’ offices and designated medical waiting areas would have to comply with ASHRAE Standard 170; bathrooms would be required to run exhaust systems continuously and maintain negative pressure relative to the rest of the building; and relative humidity would be maintained between 40% and 60%.

Local education authorities would be required to carry out testing, adjustments and balancing (including measuring outdoor supply air, total supply, exhaust volume and calculating air changes per hour) and to complete an initial assessment as soon as practicable but no later than 18 months after the bill’s effective date. If occupied spaces do not meet the standards, the bill requires adjustments, repairs or upgrades within nine months after the assessment, and post-remediation confirmation testing. Assessment reports and remediation documentation would be public records and posted on each school building’s or local education authority’s website and on the Department of Labor Standards and Department of Elementary and Secondary Education websites within 30 days of completion.

The Department of Labor Standards would be directed to promulgate regulations, in consultation with the Occupational Health and Safety Hazard Advisory Committee, within nine months of the law’s effective date. The department would have complaint and enforcement authority: an aggrieved employee or employee organization may file a complaint and the department must issue preliminary findings and orders within 30 days of receiving a complaint; if the department does not act or the complainant remains aggrieved, the bill allows a civil action within three years seeking injunctive relief, repairs or upgrades, damages, lost wages and costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees for prevailing plaintiffs.

Section 4 would require the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, in consultation with the Department of Public Health, to ensure operation of COVID-19 pooled surveillance testing programs in all public school districts at least weekly, paid for by available state funds or eligible federal funds committed to the commonwealth for pandemic response. The bill says testing supplies, provider contracts, follow-up individual testing, PPE and compensation for staff associated with testing shall be provided at no cost to school districts.

Section 5 would require that employees and students in all public school districts have access to face coverings, masks and other PPE at no cost to districts, paid for by available state funds or eligible federal funds. Section 3 directs the Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA), in consultation with its advisory board, to create a temporary major reconstruction project category for ventilation upgrades available for three years and to promulgate design requirements within one year consistent with Section 117A (examples include window openings able to accommodate a box or window fan and compatibility with MERV-13 or higher filters).

The bill creates a special commission to study ventilation in public school classrooms and facilities, including temperature and humidity limits, number of air-conditioned public schools, effects of indoor air quality on children and state funding/bidding processes for heating and air-conditioning upgrades. The commission’s first meeting must commence no later than Dec. 1, 2025, and it must submit findings, recommendations and draft legislation to legislative clerks and the chairs of the Joint Committee on Education by Dec. 1, 2026.

The text also amends cross-references in Chapter 149 and references the federal Public Health Service Act (section 319, 42 U.S.C. 247d) and guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bill as filed is a filing with the Senate docket (No. 173) on Jan. 9, 2025; the text as presented does not include committee referral, legislative action, or an enactment date.