The New York City Department of Education has authority over 1300 school buildings.¹ Superstorm Sandy damaged 200 Department of Education buildings, 24 of which needed to relocate permanently.^2,3 The New York City Resilient Schools Consortium (RiSC) formed in response to the disaster. With funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Wildlife Federation worked with Brooklyn Public School students to design and implement school resilience measures.^4,5 The New York City Department of Education, Brooklyn College, New York Sea Grant, and the Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay were also partners.

School Resilience Projects

Students assessed how vulnerable their schools and communities were to rising sea levels, heavy precipitation, increasing temperatures, and other climate-related factors.⁴ The results showed that most schools and communities were vulnerable to climate impacts. Students then developed and implemented small-scale, school-based resilience projects, such as green roofs, bioswales, rain gardens, lighting sensors, and educational outreach programs.³ The RiSC sought to empower students by giving them knowledge and tools to confront climate change and make positive changes in their communities, actively pushing back against climate grief and fatigue.

The RiSC also helped create design standards for the New York City Green Schools Guide.⁶ Published in 2017, the guide is a resource for the New York City School Construction Authority (SCA). The SCA is a municipal agency responsible for the design and construction of public schools in the New York City region.⁷ Both the SCA design standards and the Green Schools Guide consider projected and observed impacts of climate change on school facilities. These guides inform the design and retrofit of more than 1300 schools serving more than 1 million students.⁶