• Title V authorizes EPA to establish a state grant program to provide assistance for EPA programs to schools and develop and implement state school environmental health programs.
• The EPA Administrator is directed to prepare an annual report to Congress on activities carried out under Title V authority.

At the end of 2007, Congress added a fifth title to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), subtitled Healthy High-Performance Schools. Enacted as Title IV, Subtitle E (section 461) of Public Law 110-140, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, TSCA Title V authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a state grant program to provide technical assistance for EPA programs to schools and develop and implement state school environmental health programs.

State programs must include standards for school building design, construction, and renovation, and identify ongoing school building environmental problems and recommended solutions. Environmental problems specifically mentioned in the law include “contaminants, hazardous substances, and pollutant emissions.” EPA’s authority to provide grants expired five years after the date of enactment.

Title V required the EPA Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to issue voluntary guidelines within 18 months of Title V enactment for selecting sites for schools (presumably new schools). The guidelines are to account for the “special vulnerability of children to hazardous substances or pollution exposures in any case in which the potential for contamination at a potential school site exists,” modes of transportation available to students and staff, efficient use of energy, and potential use of a school at the site as an emergency shelter.

Title V also required the EPA Administrator, in consultation with the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of Health and Human Services, to issue voluntary guidelines within two years of enactment for developing and implementing state environmental health programs for schools. These guidelines had to take into account the findings of federal initiatives established under “relevant federal law with respect to school facilities,” including initiatives related to water and energy conservation authorized by sections 431 through 441, and work related to high performance green buildings authorized by section 492 of Public Law 110-140. In particular, the guidelines had to take into account:

• Environmental problems, contaminants, hazardous substances, and pollutant emissions;
• Natural day lighting;
• Ventilation;
• Heating and cooling;
• Moisture control and mold;
• Maintenance, cleaning, and pest control;
• Acoustics; and
• Other issues relating to the health, comfort, productivity, and performance of occupants of the school facilities.

In addition, Title V required that the guidelines:

• Provide technical assistance on siting, design, management, and operation of school facilities;
• Collaborate with children’s environmental health centers in school environmental investigations;
• Assist states and the public to better understand and improve the environmental health of children; and
• Take into account “the special vulnerability of children in low-income and minority communities to exposures from contaminants, hazardous substances, and pollutant emissions.”

Several provisions in Title V refer to entities established under other sections of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. For example, Title V contains directives for the Federal Director of the Office of Federal High-Performance Green Buildings in the General Services Administration, which was created by section 436(a).

In addition, there is reference to the national high-performance green building clearinghouse established in section 423(1). Title V requires the Federal Director to ensure as much as possible, that the public clearinghouse “receives and makes available information on the exposure of children to environmental hazards in school facilities.” The EPA Administrator is directed to prepare an annual report to Congress on activities carried out under Title V authority, and this report also must be made available to the public through the clearinghouse.

For the purposes of carrying out the provisions of Title V, Congress authorized appropriations of $1.5 million annually through 2013.