Safe Spaces: Protecting Student Health on Children’s Environmental Health Day and Every Day

This webinar will provide an overview of the unique vulnerabilities of children to environmental health hazards. It will describe the environmental health risks for students and staff in the school environment focusing on both legacy and emerging threats. We will discuss practical prevention strategies and health promotion interventions that can be implemented to reduce environmental health risks in schools.

Learning Objectives

1.  Describe environmental health vulnerabilities of children.
2. Identify environmental health risks in schools for children and staff.
3. Discuss strategies to reduce environmental health risks in schools.

Presenter

Kathy L. Reiner received her MPH from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, her BA in biology and chemistry from Valley City State University, and her BSN from the University of Colorado. She is currently a School Nurse Specialist at the Colorado Department of Education. A strong advocate for healthy school environments and environmental justice, Kathy is a 2019-20 Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE) Fellow, represents the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) on the ANHE Nursing Collaborative for Climate Change and Health, serves on the Climate Change and Advocacy work groups, and is an executive board member of the Healthy Schools Network. Her professional interests focus on climate change and planetary health impacts on child health, and her current projects include co-authoring a chapter on Emergency and Disaster Preparedness for the Comprehensive School Nurse Textbook 4th edition, (in process), and co-leads a standards-based, best practice, school asthma management professional learning collaborative of Colorado school nurses. She was a contributing author to School Nursing: Scope and Standards of Practice, 4th edition, for which she received a NASN distinguished services award and was recently named a fellow with the National Academy of School Nurses.