Transcript:
Climate change is increasingly disrupting kids’ education. When extreme weather hits, schools often close for kids’ safety.
Hurricanes, floods, storms, snow, freezing cold, and wildfire smoke can all prompt schools to shut their doors or send kids home early.
And many schools, especially in northern areas, lack air conditioning and have had to close during extreme heat waves.
Klein: “Those are schools that were built without cooling that now need cooling.”
Jonathan Klein is the CEO of the climate and education nonprofit UndauntedK12.
His group maps instances across the U.S. when a school day or school activity was canceled, delayed, or cut short by extreme weather.
Klein: “Every time we hear of a school disrupted by extreme weather, we put it on the map.”
Klein says that in the 2024 to 2025 school year, extreme weather disrupted school for 9 million students.
And this past year, in his state of California, students lost about a half-million hours of instructional time.
When school is canceled, parents may have to skip work to stay home with their kids. And many families also rely on school breakfast and lunch, so the impacts go far beyond lost learning time.
Reporting credit: Ethan Freedman / ChavoBart Digital Media
