Bill Targets School Restrooms

Maintaining clean, well-stocked restrooms will be mandatory for public and private school districts in California starting Jan. 1, 2004, under a new law.

The “Clean Bathrooms Bill,” which passed in September, mandates that operations departments will not get additional funding to comply with the law — they must work with existing budgets to ensure restrooms meet requirements. In addition, any school in violation of the law will be ineligible for state deferred maintenance fund-matching apportionments unless it corrects the violation within 30 days of notice.

According to the new law: “... every restroom shall at all times be maintained and cleaned regularly, fully operational and stocked at all times with toilet paper, soap, and paper towels or functional hand dryers.”

A district responds
At least one California school district operations managers says the new law will not affect they way custodians clean restrooms.

“Our bathrooms are checked and stocked three times daily,” says Bob Smock, director of operations, Long Beach (Calif.) Unified School District.

A little more than a year ago, student complaints about the “dirty” conditions of the Long Beach district’s restrooms made local headlines (see the September 2002 issue of Housekeeping Solutions).

Smock did not think changes needed to be made to the districts cleaning operations then — nor does he now.

“We are going to keep doing what we’re doing,” he says. “There will always be tales of dirty bathrooms. It doesn’t take long for someone to make it dirty.”

After student complaints hit newspapers in 2002, the district invited the local health department to inspect the restrooms. The Long Beach Health Department found the district to be in compliance with the same standards as hotels and restaurants.

“We’re about as proactive as anybody, especially because of what happened [in 2002],” Smock says. “We also will be keeping good records [on cleaning].”

IICRC Approves Mold Standard

The Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) council recently approved the IICRC’s new S520 Mold Remediation Standard.

The standard will provide guidance “regarding action levels that trigger remediation activities or confirm remediation success.”

The next step: approval from the IICRC’s board of directors. Click for more information.

OSHA issues mold bulletin

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently issued recommendations on mold growth prevention and protection of workers involved in the prevention and cleanup of mold.

The bulletin includes information on assessing moisture problems and cleaning up mold and moisture damage.

More information.