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Ventilation Standard

What are the recommendations for ventilation before reopening schools?

Ventilation alone cannot prevent the spread of COVID19, but along with physical distancing, reducing the number of individuals in a room, and consistent wearing of masks, ventilation can help replace indoor air with outdoor or filtered air, which reduces the amount of COVID19 aerosolized droplets inside a room. The following spaces meet ASHRAE and Alameda County Public Health Guidance for ventilation that can help reduce the spread of COVID19. As the guidance is updated based on new research and understanding of transmission patterns and science, we will also update our internal standard for ventilation.

At each school, we have identified the spaces that meet these standards, and the number of students who can be served in these spaces with 6ft physical distancing throughout the space.
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For schools that do not have natural air flow with open doors and windows, our Facilities team is working to upgrade filters to the MERV13 or MERV16 standard, which meets or exceeds the recommendations by national and local ventilation experts.

Spaces that can be used on campus with groups of students

All spaces must allow for 6ft physical distancing for the number of students served
  • Outdoor spaces
  • Indoor spaces with at least 2 open doors/windows that allow for outdoor air exchange into the room
  • Indoor spaces with at least a MERV13 filter
  • Indoor spaces with a filtration/air movement system that allows for outdoor air exchange into the room
  • Indoor spaces with at least 1 open door/window that also has an in-room air purifier with a HEPA or MERV13 filter

Additional Information

​ASHRAE Standards
ACPHD Guidance
PPE
Ventilation
Cleaning
Family Engagement
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