Contents
- Background on the Healthy Schools Act
- How the act affects pest control businesses
- Reporting pesticide use and maintaining records
- Posting before treatments
- Notifying parents
- Selecting least-hazardous methods
- School IPM kit for pest control businesses
The Healthy Schools Act of 2000 (Assembly Bill 2260) put into code
the DPR’s existing voluntary school IPM program and added some new
requirements, such as parental notification of
pesticide applications, warning signs in pesticide-treated areas, recordkeeping at schools,
and pesticide use reporting by licensed pest control businesses
that work in schools. 
more...
Resources:
- Healthy Schools Act: Summary [pdf]
- Healthy Schools Act of 2000 (AB 2260): full text [pdf]
The Healthy Schools Act of 2000 calls for voluntary integrated pest management (IPM) programs in all California schools. Pest control businesses should therefore expect a stronger demand for IPM approaches in their work.
In addition, the following mandatory requirements of the Act may affect your business.
- Beginning January 1, 2002, pest control businesses must report all pesticides used [link below] on any school site to DPR. This reporting is in addition to the pesticide use reporting already required of pest control businesses.
- Warning signs are posted 24 hours before pesticide treatments and 72 hours afterward.
- Schools retain records of pesticides used on each school site for at least four years.
- Parents are notified of expected pesticide treatments for the coming year [link below].
- Interested parents (who have registered with the district) are notified at least 72 hours before individual pesticide applications.
- Certain pesticides are exempt from recordkeeping by the schools, notification, and posting requirements.
Except for pesticide use reporting, all of the above requirements are the responsibility of the school district's IPM coordinator. However, some schools may choose to delegate the authority to contractors.
To comply with the Healthy Schools Act, an effective communication system is essential between pest control businesses and the schools they serve. Schools will now need to know of any pesticide treatments well in advance to enable them to notify parents 72 hours before the event. Schools and PCOs will similarly need to discuss products to be included in the annual notification letters.
Resources:
Reporting Pesticide Use and Maintaining Records |legislative text|
Pest control businesses should maintain records of pesticide usage for four reasons:
- California law requires monthly reports of pesticide use ()
- The Healthy Schools Act requires applicators to submit additional, more detailed annual reports for applications at school sites.
- Schools must now retain records of pesticide use for four years under the Act. As a contractor, your business will have to provide this information for the schools.
- Maintaining complete records is essential to any effective IPM program.
The Healthy Schools Act of 2000 (AB 2260) amended the pesticide use reporting requirements for licensed pest control businesses for work performed on public school sites. Beginning January 1, 2002, pest control businesses will be required to maintain records of pesticide use when they apply any pesticide at a school site, and report these pesticide applications to DPR. Records of these applications must be submitted on the new school pesticide use reporting form [pdf] developed by DPR. The forms must be submitted annually and may be submitted more often at the discretion of the pest control business. This requirement is in addition to existing, monthly pesticide use reporting requirements.
The law does not require schools to keep records for treatments involving exempt products (534 kb) [pdf] such as baits and traps. While these exemptions apply to school recordkeeping, they do not apply to recordkeeping or reporting by licensed pest control businesses. You are still required to keep records and report use of Healthy Schools Act-exempt products to DPR, unless they are products otherwise exempted from registration in California. In addition, DPR highly recommends that schools record all treatments. Keeping these records is an important part of an IPM program, and also allows schools to document their use of least-toxic alternatives.
DPR has developed regulations that provide more details on these new pesticide use reporting requirements, as well as the specific forms to be used.Resources:
Pesticides exempted from the Healthy Schools Act (534 kb) [pdf] – A printable worksheet to help you determine whether recordkeeping, posting, and notification are legally required for particular pesticide products.
(NOTE: DPR recommends keeping records of ALL pest management activities, as part of a sound IPM program)- Overview of California’s pesticide use reporting (PUR) system
- Revised school pesticide use reporting regulations [pdf]
- School pesticide use reporting form [pdf]
- Sample pesticide application warning sign [pdf]
Posting Before Treatments |legislative text|
The Healthy Schools Act requires each school site to:
- Post warning signs 24 hours before treatment at each site where pesticides will be applied.
- Leave signs for 72 hours after treatment.
- Display the term “Warning/Pesticide Treated Area” and include product name, manufacturer’s name, U.S. EPA product registration number, intended date and areas of application, and reason for the pesticide application.
Depending on contractual arrangements, pest control businesses may be required to perform this posting.
Resources:
Notifying Parents |legislative text|
The law requires schools to notify parents in three situations:
- Notify parents of expected pesticide treatments for the coming year. Pest control businesses may need to work with IPM coordinators or school administrators to develop product lists for these notifications. The notifications must identify the active ingredient or ingredients in each product, as well as the product name itself. Remember that there are usually many products that contain a given active ingredient. Also, there is sometimes more than one active ingredient in a product. You can look up product names from active ingredient, and vice versa, using the links below. (Note that products exempt from registration may not be listed on DPR’s databases. For example, products qualifying as U.S. EPA “minimum risk” (FIFRA 25(b)) pesticides are exempt, although some manufacturers choose to register them.)
- Notify interested parents before individual pesticide
applications
School sites must notify interested parents of planned pesticide treatments at least 72 hours before each application. The notices must include name, active ingredient(s), and intended date of application. - If a product to be used was not listed in the most recent annual notification, the school IPM coordinator must notify all parents at least 72 hours before application. This will require good coordination between pest control businesses and school districts.
To comply with these notification requirements, pest control businesses and school districts must set up a communication system so that school administrators have enough advance notice to prepare the necessary letters.
Resources:
- Sample information sheet for parents [pdf]
- Sample annual notification of pesticide use [pdf]
- Sample notice of pesticide application [pdf]
- Look up pesticide active ingredients from product names. DPR product/label databases.
Selecting Least-Hazardous Methods |legislative text|
Pest management professionals should already be familiar with IPM. In an IPM program, prevention is always the preferred strategy. Monitoring is essential to decide whether treatment is really necessary, and to measure the success of previous efforts. When you do use pesticides, you will want to choose the least hazardous products possible for the job. Remember that just because a tactic is “standard practice” does not mean it is the best choice, in terms of either effectiveness or safety. For example:
- Perimeter spraying is generally a poor tactic for ant control. While such sprays may appear to give quick results, they have little effect on the colony.
- Calendar-based treatment schedules are generally inappropriate. Though convenient to schedule, calendar-based spraying usually results in unnecessarily high pesticide use.
Resources:
- Check treatment recommendations for specific pests . UCIPM Pest Notes series.
- Look up active ingredients associated with a product name from DPR’s databases.
- Find toxicity information on pesticide active ingredients. Information on pesticide toxicology from EXTOXNET, a consortium of several universities.
- Least toxic alternatives for Argentine ants, fleas, and white grubs of lawns [pdf] A DPR Pest Management Assessment by Dr. Nita Davidson.
- Other links on managing pests.
- Other links on pesticide hazards.
To make things easier, we have assembled some essential items into a downloadable packet.
Download complete kit or download individual documents below. We have included versions that you can edit (Microsoft Word) for some documents; others are in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format.