Projects
Williams Anniversary Outreach Campaign
For 2025, Clean Air Allies is launching an outreach campaign to celebrate the anniversary of Williams v. California, a class-action lawsuit brought in 2000 by Eliezer Williams and nearly 100 other California schoolchildren. The plaintiffs argued that the State of California and its officials had denied their state constitutional right to an equal education by failing to ensure access to “essential learning tools and conditions,” including safe and healthy school facilities.
The lawsuit’s settlement, announced in August 2004 and approved by the state superior court in March 2005, created public school facilities accountability mechanisms still used today. These include:
- notices in every non-charter public school classroom;
- a complaint procedure for parents, students, teachers, and community members;
- a Facilities Inspection Tool (FIT);
- annual School Accountability Report Card (SARC) facilities reporting; and
- ongoing multilayered oversight.
These mechanisms are supposed to involve a range of stakeholders at different levels. However, many grassroots advocates aren’t aware of them, and too often, they’ve devolved to “box checking” by education officials.
Throughout 2025, Clean Air Allies will raise awareness of the accountability tools created thanks to Williams and explore how they can be leveraged to increase access to clean air, and better facilities conditions generally, in California public schools.
We hope you’ll join us in celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Williams settlement’s approval, and twenty-fifth anniversary of the underlying lawsuit, as an opportunity to:
- be inspired by the plaintiffs’ courage,
- take stock of the important rights they asserted, and
- ask what action is needed to ensure all California schoolchildren have access to essential learning tools and conditions today.
“Find the (Williams) Notice in Your Classroom,” launched February 10, 2025, is Clean Air Allies’ first Williams Anniversary Outreach Campaign activity. Click on the image below to access a larger image of the flyer and a downloadable PDF version.
CalSHAPE Outreach, Expertise, and Advocacy
In spring 2024, Clean Air Allies’ California Alliance for Clean Air in Schools initiative launched an outreach campaign around the California Schools Healthy Air, Plumbing, and Efficiency (CalSHAPE) Ventilation Program. A grant program authorized by AB 841 (Ting, 2020) and administered by the California Energy Commission (CEC), the CalSHAPE Ventilation Program funds work to improve indoor air quality and energy efficiency in K-12 schools. It pays for qualified workers to:
- install classroom CO2 monitors;
- implement MERV 13 or better filters where feasible;
- verify ventilation rates;
- assess HVAC systems and needs; and
- make HVAC repairs, replacements, and upgrades to increase function and energy efficiency.
Based on extensive communications with CEC staff to ensure factual accuracy, we developed resources to encourage school districts to apply for the CalSHAPE Ventilation Program, including an advocacy toolkit, FAQs, and a one-pager on the program and its benefits.
We also advocated for the extension of CalSHAPE’s existing sunset date, resulting in introduction of AB 691, though unfortunately that bill died in committee.
When CalSHAPE Ventilation Program applications and processing were abruptly frozen on July 1, 2024, we were instrumental in mobilizing efforts to defend the program, including drafting a letter to CEC that 25 other organizations signed.
Our subject-matter expertise and advocacy also helped to defeat AB 3121, saving approximately $170 million in funding for school districts that already had applied for CalSHAPE Ventilation Program grants by July 1, 2024.
Click on the image above to see our spring 2024 CalSHAPE outreach materials.
Click on the image above to download a copy of a letter we drafted and submitted to CEC’s CalSHAPE docket in summer 2024. It was signed by 25 other organizations.