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Asthma Task Force urges SFUSD to expand indoor-air-quality tracking, fund coordinator
Summary
The San Francisco Asthma Task Force told the school board the district still cannot confidently identify every student with asthma, urged a full rollout of Tools for Schools and a transition to green custodial products, and requested ongoing funding and annual board reports.
Superintendent Arlene Ackerman invited the San Francisco Asthma Task Force to present its annual update to the Board of Education, where task-force members urged stronger district systems to identify and support students with asthma.
Anjali Nath, staff to the San Francisco Asthma Task Force and director of the asthma program at Breathe California, said the task force’s review showed progress but stressed continuing gaps in the district’s student health data. “Right now … we cannot confidently say that we are aware of every child in the district with asthma,” Nath said, adding that incomplete entries in the district student information system (SIS) limit the district’s ability to ensure support for students with asthma.
The presenters told the board the SIS currently shows about “1,500-plus” asthma-related entries but emphasized the number is incomplete because some administrative assistants have not consistently entered data and some families do not provide medical information. Marie Hemke, a retired district nurse and chair of the schools, child development and home-based childcare committee of the Asthma Task Force, said the district has offered professional development for administrative staff and student-support personnel to improve data entry and care planning.
The task force pressed the district to expand the Tools for Schools indoor-air-quality program, noting pilot work at roughly 46 sites and recent training at 10 child development centers. Anjali Nath asked the board to commit to a “full transition to these green cleaning products” for custodial services and to consider a sustained funding commitment for a Tools for Schools coordinator. Nath specifically recommended a half‑time coordinator position for up to five years to institutionalize the program and support site liaisons.
District staff and task-force members described coordination with facilities and custodial services. Presenters named facilities staff (identified in the presentation as John Biddoff and Martin Escalante) as active partners in evaluating construction-related indoor environmental quality issues and aligning Tools for Schools with Williams inspections and deferred-maintenance planning.
Board members pressed on several operational points during Q&A: whether counts correlate with neighborhood demographics (presenters said higher incidence is visible in Bayview and among African American youth), why charter schools appeared in some listings (staff said the data publication reflects how IT compiled available forms and promised a technical follow-up), and how to increase parent response rates and translation of forms. The task force agreed to work with district IT and a district subcommittee to update SIS data and report back at the first fall meeting.
The presentation closed with a set of concrete requests: guarantee that asthma emergency procedures are posted in classrooms, fund sustained coordination for Tools for Schools, continue professional development for administrative and support staff, expand the Tools for Schools rollout, and provide annual written reports to the board documenting progress and outstanding gaps. Superintendent Garcia and task-force leaders said they will follow up with IT and facilities and return with additional information at the board’s September meetings.
The district and task force repeatedly framed the data as an improving but incomplete picture; presenters warned that better parent outreach and systematic data entry are necessary before the SIS can be used reliably to guarantee care for all students with asthma.
