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In her fifth grade class in a Los Angeles school, on a day when outdoor temperatures reached 116 degrees, the heat gave Lilian Chin a headache. The air conditioner in her classroom was broken. Her fingers felt numb and she vomited in class, according to her mother. The nurse wasn鈥檛 available, so she was sent back to her hot classroom. 

By the time the school day was over and Lilian made it to her mother鈥檚 air conditioned car, she was exhausted and red-faced. At home, she vomited again and got a leg cramp. Veronica Chin rushed her 11-year-old daughter to an emergency room, where she was diagnosed with heat exhaustion 鈥� a serious condition that leads to a life-threatening heat stroke if not treated promptly. 

When Chin called the school, Haskell Elementary STEAM Magnet, to complain about the broken air conditioning, she received an email that a repair ticket had been created. The San Fernando Valley school, in the Los Angeles Unified School District, had marked the repair a 鈥渓ow priority.鈥�  (School officials did not respond to CalMatters鈥� questions when a reporter called and visited the campus.)

Chin was furious. 鈥淚鈥檓 trusting them with my children,鈥� she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 thinking that my children are in a safe space, when they鈥檙e not.鈥�  

, California schools are unprepared to protect their students from extreme heat. Some schools don鈥檛 have air conditioning at all, because they were built before hotter climates made it a necessity. Others have old systems pushed to their limits, with school districts struggling to keep up with repairs or replacements with limited staff and funding. 

For instance, in Long Beach 鈥� which reached a degrees last month 鈥� all or most buildings in 13 public schools with about 14,000 students have no air conditioning systems. In Oakland, as many as 2,000 classrooms don鈥檛 have them. And in Fresno, officials have been overwhelmed with more than 5,000 calls for air conditioning repairs in the past 12 months.

Between 15 and 20% of California鈥檚 kindergarten through 12th grade public schools 鈥渉ave , and as many as another 10% of schools need major repair or replacement for their systems to function adequately,鈥� UC Berkeley and Stanford University researchers wrote in a report last year.  Some advocates say that is likely an underestimate.  

School officials say they would need tens of billions of dollars to install and repair air conditioning. Many of the worst problems are in hot, inland school districts that serve low-income communities of color, where there are fewer financial resources to replace or repair them.

鈥淚f it鈥檚 too hot, just like if you鈥檙e too hungry, it鈥檚 almost impossible to learn, so the impact on students and teachers is great,鈥� said Paul Idsvoog, the Fresno Unified School District鈥檚 chief operations officer. 鈥淚f you have multiple systems that are 20 years old, sooner or later you鈥檙e not going to be able to keep up with the tide.鈥�

Voters in November will be asked to approve a  to fund repairs and upgrades of buildings at K-12 schools and community colleges, including air conditioning systems.

Gov. Gavin Newsom last month vetoed  for climate-resilient schools, including an assessment of when air conditioning systems were last modernized. State officials currently do not collect data on air conditioning in schools.

Nationally  need to update or replace their heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems in at least half of their schools, according to a federal study. 

In California, the problems are common statewide, jeopardizing children and teachers in inland as well as coastal communities.

鈥淚t鈥檚 just a hot mess,鈥� said Aaron Kahlenberg, a teacher at Los Angeles Unified鈥檚 John F. Kennedy High School in Granada Hills. 鈥淲hen it was cool out, it worked, and when it got hot, it didn鈥檛 work. It got to be very frustrating.鈥� 

Absences rise and learning drops on hot days

Hot classrooms lead to more student and teacher and absences, and studies show that they reduce children鈥檚 ability to learn.

On a recent day in Oakland when outdoor temperatures reached 88 degrees, 8th-grader Juliette Sanchez felt sticky and hot in a stuffy room at Melrose Leadership Academy. 

鈥淔or me it鈥檚 a lot harder to focus on what I鈥檓 doing,鈥� Sanchez said. 鈥淟ike, right now I鈥檓 sticking to the table. It鈥檚 uncomfortable to write. My arm is sticky and I鈥檓 just hot.鈥�

Student performance on exams declines by up to 14% on hot days, according to a 2018  in New York City. According to another study, an increase in the average temperature of 1 degree leads to , measured by changes in test scores. 

For Black and brown students, the learning losses are even greater, said V. Kelly Turner, a heat expert at UCLA鈥檚 Luskin School of Public Affairs who has researched hot schools. 

鈥淭hey鈥檙e already perhaps in schools that don鈥檛 have enough teachers or enough supplies, and then put on top of that, they鈥檙e going to hot homes,鈥� she said. 鈥淢aybe they don鈥檛 have any rights to install air conditioning systems. Maybe they live in mobile homes and have even fewer rights.”

鈥淔or me it鈥檚 a lot harder to focus on what I鈥檓 doing. Like right now, I鈥檓 sticking to the table. It鈥檚 uncomfortable to write. My arm is sticky and I鈥檓 just hot.鈥�

 Juliette Sanchez, 8th grader at an Oakland school

A state program, , helps public schools improve air conditioning and water systems. Between 2021 and 2023, more than 3,800 schools were  $421 million to assess their systems, with 11 undertaking major repairs or replacements. 

However, in August, state legislators considered eliminating the program . Although the bill failed, the program has been closed to new applications since July. More than a dozen school districts have  to reopen applications. 

The attempt to gut the program worries school and environmental advocates, who say the state is failing to prioritize schools as climate change raises temperatures.

鈥淔or many schools, cooling is no longer just a nicety, but a necessity,鈥� Jonathan Klein, head of UndauntedK12, an organization that supports schools transitioning to zero emissions to reduce greenhouse gasses, said in a statement. 鈥淪tudents and staff deserve safe, healthy, resilient school campuses that support teaching and learning amidst extreme weather.鈥� 

Fixing air conditioners: $9 billion in LA schools alone

Most students return to school in mid-August or early September, when much of the state 鈥� particularly in the Los Angeles region 鈥� suffers its most intense heat waves. Some schools also operate year-round.

In the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, classroom temperatures reached into the mid 90s during an early September heat wave.

Teachers at several schools there told CalMatters that their requests for air conditioning repairs went unanswered or were slow to come. Portable units installed in classrooms were insufficient to keep temperatures comfortable enough for students to learn. Students were visibly lethargic from the heat. Some parents opted to keep their children home.

Kahlenberg, who teaches high school architecture, said he had asked for the air conditioning in his classroom to be repaired for weeks. By the time a heat wave hit in early September, it still wasn鈥檛 fixed. His classroom temperature reached 95 degrees.

鈥淓verybody was tired,鈥� Kahlenberg said. 鈥淚 told them if they needed to take a break, that if they didn鈥檛 want to work, it was totally acceptable. I would just extend the project. But it just shouldn鈥檛 have to be like that.鈥� 

Kahlenberg said teachers told him about 20 other classrooms at his school also didn鈥檛 have working air conditioning during that heat wave. 

A physical education teacher in another Los Angeles school said she spent weeks before the September heat wave trying to flag air conditioning problems in her office.  (The teacher wished to remain anonymous out of fear she would be disciplined for discussing the issue with CalMatters.)

Then, when the extreme heat came and the gymnasium temperature was too hot for the students, she and others informed the school. She said the school responded on the last day of the heat wave that students could sit outside in shade if they needed to. The suggestion dumbfounded her: Why would she have her students sit outside, where it was even hotter than in the gym?  

All schools in Los Angeles Unified have air conditioners. But Krisztina Tokes, the district鈥檚 chief facilities executive, said 50,000 faulty or aged units and pieces of equipment need to be replaced in the district鈥檚 more than 1,000 schools.

LA Unified, the largest school district in the state, has invested $1 billion to upgrade heating, ventilation and cooling systems in the last two decades, including $287 million for 20 projects that are currently under construction or being designed.

Tokes said officials work to keep students safe by following protocols when air conditioning breaks down, such as installing portable units or moving students to spare, air conditioned spaces. Outside, schools place portable misting fans and commercial-grade pop-up tents for shade. 

School days were cut short in schools where district officials felt they couldn鈥檛 provide a safe learning environment. Air conditioning systems are also checked at the start of summer and again just before classes start. Teachers and staff are trained to identify and respond to signs of heat related illness, a district spokesperson said.

鈥淯nder no circumstance should there be a child or parent thinking their health isn鈥檛 being addressed,鈥� Tokes said. 鈥淭here were conditions that were beyond the district鈥檚 control.鈥� 

Replacing all air conditioners in the district鈥檚 schools would cost at least $9 billion, according to Amanda Wherritt, Los Angeles Unified鈥檚 deputy chief of staff.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really about financial resources,鈥� Tokes said. 鈥淲e do not receive enough money from the state to either repair or replace our systems.鈥� 

Even coastal schools are sweltering 

While many classrooms throughout the state have air conditioning, those that don鈥檛 are often in coastal areas. Many of these schools were built in the 1950s or 60s, before the warming effects of climate change had worsened heat waves.

In Long Beach less than a decade ago, 51 out of 84 schools didn鈥檛 have air conditioning in all classrooms. Since then, a has helped the school district upgrade many of them. 

But 13 schools, serving about a quarter of the district鈥檚 students, still for at least another three years. One school, Polytechnic High School, which has about 4,000 students, will undergo major renovations, including adding air conditioning, that won鈥檛 be complete until 2028, said Alan Reising, Long Beach Unified School District鈥檚 facilities and operations assistant superintendent. In the meantime, officials installed portable air conditioners and outdoor shade structures in many of the schools, Reising said. 

Some inland Long Beach neighborhoods experience five high-heat days a year when temperatures exceed 97 degrees.

鈥淎rguably, we haven鈥檛 needed it,鈥� Reising said. But now, he said, 鈥渨ith the obvious signs of climate change, we have more hot days we have to deal with every year. There鈥檚 no thought that it鈥檚 going to get better in the future, so the need for air conditioning now has become very obvious.鈥� 

In the San Diego Unified School District, all 175 schools now have air conditioning. The district spent $460 million between 2013 and 2019 to install systems in the 118 schools that didn鈥檛 have them. 

While many of the systems are newer as a result, they鈥檙e still with students saying some classrooms reached around 100 degrees in September. Some San Diego neighborhoods have four high-heat days a year that exceed 91 degrees. 

鈥淲e were definitely experiencing some air conditioning issues throughout the district. We are doing our best to respond to all repair requests as quickly as possible,鈥� said Samer Naji, a district spokesperson.

In the Oakland Unified School District, about 2,000 classrooms in 77 schools have no air conditioners. In late September, outdoor temperatures reached 88 degrees; some Oakland neighborhoods have seven days a year that exceed 89 degrees.

Equipping those schools with air conditioning would be an expensive and complicated task that would cost at least $400 million, said Preston Thomas, Oakland Unified School District鈥檚 chief systems and services officer. 

At Melrose Learning Academy in Oakland, students said the heat makes it hard to focus. Lyra Modersbach, an eighth grader who is a member of an environmental club at the school, said she has noticed temperatures getting hotter year after year. When she鈥檚 home, she can wear cool clothes and rest to beat the heat, but she can鈥檛 do that at school. 

Modersbach said her school has a few portable air conditioners but if too many are on at once, they shut off. 

The heat 鈥渋s very distracting,鈥� she  said. 鈥淚鈥檝e noticed having a harder time getting my work done or feeling frustrated.鈥�

As members of the Youth Versus Apocalypse environmental club, Modersbach and Juliette Sanchez and invest in an energy-efficient heat pump that will provide air conditioning. The district will use funds from a 2020 $735 million bond measure to  at their school next year.  

Inland schools have little money to invest

While many inland schools are fully air conditioned, some don鈥檛 have air conditioning in their gymnasiums, cafeterias and multi-purpose rooms.

Many inland school districts, where 100-degree days are common, have far fewer financial resources than wealthier coastal districts, said Sara Hinkley, California program manager for UC Berkeley鈥檚 Center for Cities + Schools. 

鈥淢ost of the spending on facility upgrades is based on local bond measures, which is based on your ability to levy property taxes,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o districts that have lower levels of property values per student are able to raise less money to upgrade their facilities.鈥� 

School districts in the Central Valley and the Inland Empire are among those that have invested less money because of lower property values and a smaller voter base to tap into, Hinkley said. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 no environmental justice or climate equity imperative. That would take an active regulation to change how bond disbursements are made in the state,鈥� said UCLA鈥檚 Turner. 鈥淭he state could go a long way by investing in better technical assistance to communities to apply for these funds and focusing on priority schools.鈥�  

Fresno Unified School District, where 90% of students are on free or reduced lunch plans, recently invested $60 million in federal funds to replace or install air conditioning systems in some of its gyms, cafeterias and multi-purpose rooms, said Alex Belanger, chief executive over the district鈥檚 operations. 

But the district needs about $500 million to improve its heating and ventilation systems, Belanger said. 

Belanger said during heat waves, it鈥檚to keep students cool. Staff work weekends and nights to repair air conditioning systems and the school provides temporary chillers and portable air conditioning if systems break down. 

Idsvoog said the Fresno school district would like to invest in energy efficient strategies such as building well-insulated schools with green space and oriented in a way that won鈥檛 absorb heat. But there鈥檚 simply no money to do so. 

鈥淭he reality is it鈥檚 not going to get any cooler and resources will always be a challenge for any school district,鈥� Idsvoog said. 鈥淎ny assistance, grants or state funding that can support those efforts is more than welcome.鈥�

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