Clean Air Allies is a nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring that all schoolchildren, school workers, and their broader communities have access to the benefits of clean air as an issue of educational, environmental, and health justice.

Our goals. We seek to represent and channel for change the voices of caregivers and community members committed to better school indoor air quality (IAQ). We further aim to offer resources to help build the capacity of those advocating for clean air at the school district level.

In concert with other stakeholders, we want to spread the word to everyone about how improving IAQ in PK-12 schools can:

• create healthier, safer, more effective learning environments for kids and workplaces for teachers and other school staff, and
• increase community-wide resilience against wildfires, other pollution, extreme weather, and acute and chronic disease.

More specifically, we want to equip decisionmakers–educational leaders and policymakers–with the information, analysis, and tools they need to adopt smarter school IAQ policy, practice, investment, and accountability mechanisms.

With greater awareness and by allying together, we believe we can make clean air a durable reality in all schools.

Our story. Clean Air Allies’ origins trace to fall 2023, when our founders, California parents advocating for clean air in their own children’s schools, came together and began to think about change on a bigger scale.

While Clean Air Allies always has operated in a nonprofit manner, in March 2025, we obtained more formal nonprofit status by transitioning to a fiscally sponsored project of Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (SEE), a nonprofit public charity exempt from federal income tax under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Fiscal sponsorship allows Clean Air Allies to collect tax-deductible donations and apply for grants, as well as learn and receive administrative support from SEE’s experienced staff, while we build our organization and focus on clean air outreach and advocacy.

Our community. Since our start, we’ve prioritized reaching out to, learning from, and allying with a variety of different stakeholders, including:

• grassroots parent, teacher, and community advocates;
• health, education, environmental, disability, civil rights, and policy nonprofits;
• labor and trades unions;
• industry interests and professional associations;
• school district, county office of education, agency, and legislative staff; and
• academic researchers focused on climate, economics, health, biosecurity, and IAQ dynamics/systems.

We’d love for you to join us as a clean air ally!

Our focus. To date, our efforts have focused on California, our home as well as that of around 12 percent of U.S. public schoolchildren. We previously used the name California Alliance for Clean Air in Schools and still use it to refer to our primary initiative.

For more information, please contact us at cleanairalliesorg@gmail.com.