SCHOOL ABSENCES: A CONSEQUENCE OF

AIR POLLUTION IN CALIFORNIA?

ASSESSING THE PROBLEM

“The state calculates that meeting the hourly and daily ozone standards will al leviate 3.3 mil l ion school absences each year for California’s kids.”

- The E nv i r onmen t a l Wor k ing G r oup

Goals: - To uti l ize GIS as a tool to i l lustrate the health impacts

of poor air quality on California’s population. - To determine if there is a l ink between poor air quality

and school absences- To determine if there are signif icant impacts to public

school funding

All Other44%

106-120 Days12%

91-105 Days3%

76-90 Days26%

61-75 Days15%

Percentage of Schools that may be Impacted by Poor Air

Quality

160-120 Days of poor AQ – 1558 Schools91-105 Days of poor AQ – 343 Schools76-90 Days of poor AQ – 3335 Schools61-75 Days of poor AQ – 1888 Schools**Schools not heavily impacted: 5523

Total Number ofAsthma Hospitalizations

- According to the Rand Corporation, in 2009, there were 343 public schoolsthat had a daily attendance under 90%.

Sources:

Environmental Protection Agency. “Air Compare- County Comparisons.” http://www.epa.gov/aircompare/compare.htm

California Breathing. “Asthma Profiles: County Comparison Charts.” http://www.californiabreathing.org/asthma-data/county-comparisons

Rand Corporation. “Enrollment Statistics.” http://ca.rand.org/stats/education/enroll.html

Rand Corporation. “Average Daily Attendance.”http://ca.rand.org/stats/education/attendance.html

Rand Corporation. “Annual Per Pupil Spending by District.”http://ca.rand.org/stats/education/perpupil.html

California Department of Education. “Public School Database.” http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/si/ds/pubschls.asp

Skills Used:

- Slide 3: inset map- Slide 7: aggregating attribute fields

- “Perc_ada < 90”- Percent average daily attendance < 90%

- Slide 6: creating indices- “Co_perc_ad * co_enrollment = avg_ada”- (average % daily attendance) * (county enrollment) = (average number of kids per day in attendance)- co_enrollment – avg_ada = avg_absences- (county enrollment) – (avg. number of kids per day in attendance) = (avg. number of daily absences)

- Slide 7: point graduated symbol- Slide 7: geocoding- Slide 4: geocoding and graph