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Los Angeles Times
08-07-2025
- Climate
- Los Angeles Times
Dealing with extreme heat is a full-time job for parents of young kids — and their schools
When Aida Maravilla was on the hunt for a new apartment in 2021, she had one major goal: Find a place with air conditioning. She learned the hard way that cool air is more than an amenity. When her daughter was an infant she remembers the baby waking up in tears from the heat. Maravilla would soothe her with a wet cloth and leave her in just a diaper to keep her cool. It's what led her to her latest apartment in Panorama City four years ago when it was time to return to Los Angeles. Apartments in the hotter San Fernando Valley typically have air conditioning. 'It's just such a comfort, being able to do different tasks and not have to be worried about that,' Maravilla said. Still, there have been moments where the electricity bill has skyrocketed, and she's had to deal with asking for assistance. According to survey data from the Stanford Center on Early Childhood, families — across all income levels, races, ethnicities and regions — are increasingly considering how extreme weather conditions affect them. More than half of families with young children across the state are worried about its effects, according to data from the center's RAPID Survey Project, which examines early childhood and family well-being. Heat, in particular, is a significant concern. Whether at home or at school, outdoor playtime is reduced significantly to avoid the harsh sun, according to the survey. Daytime outings often revolve around air conditioning or water play to avoid overheating. And parents remain on high alert to ensure their young children are hydrating and taking breaks, as they are too little to understand those needs themselves. Maravilla sends her children to school with hats and a bottle of sunscreen in their lunch boxes — and they still come home red-faced and sweaty during the hottest months. She is also among a growing group of parents who are pushing for schools to do more to help children cope with heat. How extreme heat affects young kids Babies and children under age 6 are more vulnerable to heat exhaustion and heatstroke than most adults. Their bodies heat up faster, they spend more time outside and they don't always know how to recognize or communicate discomfort they may be experiencing because of the high temperatures, said Abigail Stewart-Kahn, a clinical social worker who is managing director of the Stanford Center on Early Childhood. There are also developmental and emotional effects that stem from the instability families may experience when routines get interrupted amid extreme heat, she added. Roughly a quarter of families with young children in California have experienced at least one extreme weather event between 2022 and 2024, according to the survey. That's not including the wildfires that ravaged the Los Angeles region in January, displacing tens of thousands of residents and disrupting child care. The survey involved more than 1,000 parents of children under age 6, who ranked limited outdoor playtime, negative health effects and home damage as the largest issues their families must navigate. The consequences of extreme weather became much more real for Lauren Quan-Madrid once the Eaton fire hit in Altadena. She was worried for the well-being of her then second-grade and preschool-age children as smoke wafted through the air and toward their home in Highland Park. But even now, six months later, the kids still ask, 'Are we safe? Is there gonna be a fire?' 'Not only are we trying to just endure the heat, but we're also seeing what's happening — what probably for the rest of my life I'm going to have to endure — and my children and my grandchildren,' Quan-Madrid said. Parents push school districts to step up on climate Parents have begun to push cities, schools and child-care centers to take steps to provide children relief from the heat, Stewart-Kahn said. Community organizations such as Reclaim Our Schools L.A. and Nature for All have encouraged parents such as Maravilla to learn about what needs to happen on campus to better safeguard against heat dangers: They've pushed for more green spaces with trees and landscaping, shade structures and updated heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems. That progress is coming, albeit slowly. L.A. Unified and other school districts across the state are factoring plans to deal with extreme heat. After years of pressure — and extended record-breaking heat waves in recent years — LAUSD released a plan in April 2024 to upgrade more than 600 schools to include more plants, trees, grass, mulch and permeable pavers that would provide some relief from the heat. The projects are expected to be completed in 2035 at the earliest. The plan puts to use $58 million that was allocated for outdoor education initiatives such as greening in June 2022 and relies on grants as well as other funding avenues. It will require an estimated investment of up to $3 billion to complete. Last year, a parent coalition successfully lobbied for Pasadena Unified to commit a portion of Measure R, its $900-million school facilities bond, for schoolyard greening. The district is also relying on community partnerships and grants to transform their outdoor areas from asphalt to native gardens and natural play areas. The renovations in turn support learning opportunities for children in agriculture, for example. In 2022, Long Beach passed a bond for funding to modernize its campuses, some of which has been used to provide shade structures at some schools. The district is pushing forward with those efforts to provide shelter from the sun, create more green spaces and get HVAC systems installed across its schools. As pillars of the community, schools should be part of community relief, said Victor Sánchez, the executive director of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy and dad to an incoming transitional kindergartner, who he hopes will one day be able to depend on school for that safety. The alliance has been working with LAUSD to prioritize and fund climate-friendly projects across the district. But much more needs to be done, he said. This article is part of The Times' early childhood education initiative, focusing on the learning and development of California children from birth to age 5. For more information about the initiative and its philanthropic funders, go to
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Heat, Floods, Storms Limit Outdoor Play for Young Children, Surveys Show
Physical activity is crucial for young children's well-being. Outdoor play not only supports children's physical health and their social and emotional development but can also foster early science learning and help anchor children in the natural world. For generations, parents and caregivers have diligently taken their kids to the playground or the park for some fresh air or just shooed them out the door to do their zoomies in the backyard. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter Now? Rising average temperatures and extreme heat waves, ferocious storms, droughts, floods and increasingly prolonged smoke seasons that bring respiratory issues and airborne diseases mean the gift of outdoor play can no longer be taken for granted. To get a picture of how these extreme weather events are affecting parents of young children, researchers from the RAPID Survey Project asked California parents with children under 6 about their family's economic resources, their stress levels, and other aspects of well-being, including their experiences with extreme weather. The project, based in the Stanford Center on Early Childhood, summarized the responses in its March fact sheet, which complements a national RAPID survey fact sheet on parents' and child care providers' experiences with extreme weather. Early ChildhoodWhat makes RAPID surveys unique is the priority of disseminating results quickly in a format that is accessible and usable. What makes RAPID surveys unique is the priority of disseminating results quickly in a format that is accessible and usable. Together, the two reports paint a clear portrait of families profoundly affected physically, emotionally and financially by increasingly concerning weather. Rising temperatures and extreme weather events are disrupting access to clean water, food and safe living conditions, affecting children's health and development and putting stress on parents and providers alike, the surveys report. 'This is not tomorrow's issue,' says Joan Lombardi, who chairs RAPID's National Advisory Council. 'This is today's. I work both domestically and internationally, and these results are for children around the world. They've experienced flooding. It's hot. They live in cities with poor air quality; urbanization is increasing around the world.' One of the most striking findings from the national survey is that more than three in five parents had experienced at least one extreme weather event in the past two years. An even higher percentage of parents surveyed (69%) say they worry about the possibility of extreme weather events and how they might affect their children. More than half of child care providers reported experiencing at least one extreme weather event. The net effect is that three-quarters of parents and more than half of child care providers say they now spend less time outdoors with children due to extreme temperatures and weather. A significant percentage of parents (84%) say extreme weather negatively affects their physical health and well-being, and more than half report that their children's physical health or emotional well-being is negatively affected. In both the California and the national survey, abnormally warm weather was the top concern of parents and providers alike. They have reason to worry. According to UNICEF, children are more vulnerable to the effects of heat stress. They perspire less than adults and have a higher metabolism, so they overheat more quickly. They spend more time outdoors for play and other activities, which puts them at greater risk for heat exposure. Children are less likely to take a break and rehydrate, which can be dangerous and even fatal in excessive heat. Heat hits some children harder than others: Children who have asthma, which disproportionately affects Black and Native American children, or who are overweight are especially sensitive to heat. According to American Forests, a map of tree cover in the U.S. is often a map of income and race; low-income populations are more at risk because they have less access to shade and to climate-controlled housing. In some of the largest U.S. cities, temperatures in the urban core can climb to a scorching 20 or more degrees higher than neighborhoods with trees and green spaces. One study found as much as a 10-degree difference between the shaded and unshaded parts of playgrounds. On a 90-degree day, that's the difference between 'extreme caution' and 'danger' levels for risks of heat illness, according to the National Weather Service. Related In addition to the health effects and safety worries, extreme weather stresses parents and providers financially. More time indoors — at home or in care — means higher utility bills for already-struggling individuals to try to mitigate the heat or cold, or filter air polluted by smoke or airborne particulates. 'We find again and again that the rates of hardship among families and the early education workforce are higher than most people are aware of,' says RAPID founder Philip Fisher, faculty director of the Stanford Center on Early Education. 'In our recent surveys, we found that 40% of families around the country are having difficulty in any month paying for basic needs like food and housing. Upwards of 70% of people who are providing care for other people's children are struggling to make ends meet each month.' Lombardi says providers need resources to mitigate challenges that go beyond increased utility costs. Some need to renovate their facilities to allow for increased indoor play time, to add air conditioning, heat pumps or air filters, or to increase shade in their outdoor areas. Some are dealing with damage to their facilities from weather events, but are challenged to find money for repairs. 'The child care workforce is already stretched beyond the limit,' Lombardi says. 'They're not able to take care of their own family needs and when you add these increasing utility and facility costs, it's an untenable situation. 'There's a lot of interest in the early childhood field in dealing with the issue, but no resources to do it — and what was available is shrinking.' The first step in addressing these issues is to face them, the researchers say. The RAPID survey results make it clear that the effects of climate change and a warming planet aren't just an issue for future generations: It's here, it's now and it's not going away. Frederica Perera, author of 'Children's Health and the Peril of Climate Change,' writes that children born after 2020 will experience up to seven times more extreme heatwaves in their lifetimes on average than people born in 1960. The focused action needed from national, state and local entities to address the changing climate may seem out of reach for parents and providers trying to do the best for their children in the here and now, but these caregivers do have an important role in helping young children cope. Their most important contribution, Lombardi says, is nurturing care, which, according to the World Health Organization, comprises: good health, adequate nutrition, responsive caregiving, security and safety, and opportunities for early learning. Additionally, families, providers and communities must prepare ahead for emergencies, which are becoming unfortunately commonplace. 'Decades of high-quality research shows that the thing that can help children most … is their buffering and nurturing relationships with adults,' Fisher says. 'When we think about climate, we need to be thinking about not just the well-being of children but the well-being of the adults around them. If the adults are OK, they're going to be in a better position when we have these kinds of [extreme weather] events.'
