As kids grapple with a mid-summer heat wave, new state laws try to help

As a mid-summer heat wave pushes temperatures into the triple digits across parts of California, two new state laws are aiming to shield students from heat illness, CalMatters reports. Governor Gavin Newsom this week signed a measure directing the state Board of Education to consider teaching students the symptoms of heat illness, while a separate law signed in twenty twenty-four now requires schools to set rules for outdoor activities during extreme weather. Advocates call the measures promising but low-cost, noting that neither funds the updated air conditioning, shade structures, or health curriculum that experts say would actually make campuses safer. The stakes are already tangible: CalMatters says six hundred eighteen children went to the emergency room for heat illness in twenty twenty-four, about a thirty percent jump from the year before. One of the outdoor-activity laws was prompted by the death of a twelve-year-old boy who collapsed during a physical education class in Lake Elsinore in twenty twenty-three.

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