Heat rules for California workers would also help keep schoolchildren cool

Sacramento, Calif. — Proposed rules to protect California workers from extreme heat would extend to schoolchildren, requiring school districts to find ways to keep classrooms cool.

If the standards are approved this month, employers in the nation's most populous state will have to provide relief to indoor workers in sweltering warehouses, steamy kitchens and other dangerously hot job sites. The rules will extend to schools, where teachers, custodians, cafeteria workers and other employees may work without air conditioning — like their students.

"Our working conditions are students' learning conditions," said Jeffery Freitas, president of the California Federation of Teachers, which represents more than 120,000 teachers and other educational employees. "We're seeing an unprecedented change in the environment, and we know for a fact that when it's too hot, kids can't learn."

A state worker safety board is scheduled to vote on the rules June 20, and they would likely take effect this summer. The move, which marks Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's latest effort to respond to the growing impacts of climate change and extreme heat, would put California ahead of the federal government and much of the nation in setting heat standards.

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