Smart Growth and School Siting
Effects of School Siting
A school's location affects student safety, community health, and the environment. A school that is safe and easy for students, teachers, parents, and other community members to reach on foot, by bicycle, or by public transit helps reduce air pollution from car use and exposure to harmful tailpipe emissions, thus improving community health.
Schools are also a major financial investment for a community, and these investments can both respond to and influence growth. As new development often occurs around key destinations, such as schools, decisions about where schools will be located are likely to impact an area's future land use, transportation patterns, and infrastructure investments.
The direct costs of building a new school or renovating an existing school, including the costs of land acquisition, site preparation, and construction, are often the only elements considered when comparing school siting alternatives. However, school siting decisions have implications for local governments, taxpayers, families, and individuals. Building schools compactly, in the neighborhoods they serve, can minimize the amount of impervious surface they create, thus protecting water quality by reducing polluted runoff. Placing schools in a location well-served by existing utilities and infrastructure may also help minimize construction costs and save taxpayer dollars.
Further, the development of schools offers an opportunity to improve the quality of schools and communities together. When building new schools or renovating existing ones, designing to rigorous green building standards can help reduce indoor air exposure risks for children and educators, result in fewer emissions of greenhouse gases, and create more efficient buildings, therefore decreasing long-term operating costs.
School location can affect how far students, parents, teachers, and staff have to travel to and from school. When affordable housing choices are limited, this may impact students' level of involvement in extracurricular activities and/or parents' level of involvement in teacher conferences or other school activities. Planning for school siting without considering the needs of a community can significantly limit opportunities and access to the multiple benefits that schools provide, especially for those most in need.
The resources provided below can help your community learn about and begin to implement effective strategies for school siting.
Reports and Research on School Siting
- Healthy School Environments (2023): This EPA page offers information to help address and resolve environmental and safety issues in schools.
- School Siting and Walkability: Experience and Policy Implications in California (2017): Research on the relationship between school siting and walkability, with recommendations designed to improve health and community outcomes.
- The Smart School Siting Tool (2016): Tool to help communities align school site selection with planning policies and capital investments, understand how school siting and other community planning processes are coordinated, and compare school siting alternatives.
- Safe Routes to School by the Numbers (2016): Report that offers data and case studies on improvements in walking- and biking-to-school programs.
- The Model School Siting Policies for School Districts (2015): Policy guidance for school districts to ensure community needs and well-being are prioritized when siting schools.
- School Siting Health Impact Assessment (2013): Analysis that provides a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) of the relationship and benefits of siting schools within a Transit-Oriented Development area.
- School Siting Guidelines (2011): Voluntary EPA guidelines that can help local school districts and community members evaluate environmental factors to make the best possible school siting decisions.
- Schools for Successful Communities: An Element of Smart Growth (2004): This publication explains why and how communities can use smart growth planning principles to build schools that better serve and support students, staff, parents, and the entire community.