New Federal Grant Funding for Indoor Air Quality Improvements

In December 2020, Congress signed the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSA) into law. CRRSA calls for $82 billion in grant funding for schools. Specifically, CRRSA provides $54 billion in funding to local education agencies, such as school districts, qualifying charter schools, and other K-12 entities, to address the impacts of COVID-19.

The act allows local education agencies to use CRRSA funding for many school needs, including the following HVAC related projects:

Inspection, testing, maintenance, repair, replacement, and upgrade projects to improve the indoor air quality in school facilities, including mechanical and non-mechanical heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems (HVAC), filtering, purification and other air cleaning, fans, control systems, and window and door repair and replacement.

Funding HVAC systems and related controls may present new business opportunities for Northwest trade allies. Participating local utilities may offer incentives—increased incentives sometimes—for technologies that address indoor air quality and ventilation. The listed systems and technologies could open the door for a wide variety of custom project opportunities.

Congress is distributing CRSSA funding to states, then states allocate funds to qualifying districts and educational institutions. States have one year to spend allocated funds, otherwise states will return unused funds to the federal government.

Estimated minimum distributions to Northwest states for these improvements are:

For more information about CRSSA funding and how it might apply to your local district, contact your local field specialist.