SAMPLE INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT POLICY FOR Your School

Your School recognizes that maintenance of a safe, clean and healthful environment for students and staff is essential to learning. It is the goal of the Your School to provide for the safest and lowest risk approach to control pest problems while protecting students, staff, the environment, and Your School property.

The Your School adopts a Least-Toxic Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Policy.  Pests and weeds will be controlled:  to protect the health and safety of students and staff; to maintain a productive learning environment; and, to maintain the integrity of school buildings and grounds.  It is the policy of the Your School to focus on long-term pest prevention and give non-chemical methods first consideration when selecting appropriate non-chemical use, and then chemicals that pose the least possible hazard to people and the environment.

A Least-Toxic Integrated Pest Management (IPM) plan contains the following elements:

1. Monitoring to determine pest population levels and identify decisions and practices that could affect pest populations
2. Setting of Injury and action levels to determine when vegetation or a pest population at a specific site causes (s) unacceptable economic or medical damage wherein corrective action should be taken.
3. Modification of pest habitats to deter pest populations and minimize pest infestations.
4. Consideration of a range of potential treatments for the pest problem, including physical, horticultural, and biological methods of pest control, using synthetic chemical controls only as a last resort and only those chemicals that pose the least possible hazard to people and the environment.  Your School will not use any Toxicity Category I or Toxicity Category II pesticide product, any pesticide product containing an ingredient know to the State of California to cause cancer, developmental toxicity, or reproductive toxicity pursuant to the California safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 or any pesticide product containing an ingredient classified by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as known, possible, or probable human carcinogen, possible human carcinogen, reproductive toxin, or developmental toxin.
5. Your School will establish a Committee to provide guidance, education and advice regarding IPM procedures.  The Committee will review the annual plan and make recommendations to the IPM Coordinator.  Members of the Committee will be appointed by the Superintendent and may include the following:  Superintendent or designee, board member, IPM Coordinator, parent, certificated staff member, classified staff member and one community member at large.

The Superintendent shall designate a staff person to coordinate the IPM program.  The IPM coordinator shall be responsible to:

Provide a status report and recommended plan annually.  Included in this plan will be administrative regulations for:

• Overall management and facilities plan listing all proposed products and methods proposed for use
• Procedures for annual notification to parents, staff and students
• Record-keeping guidelines for any chemical pesticide application
• Education and training for Your School personnel
• Approved Use, Limited Use and Banned Use Products Lists
• Emergency Exemption Process

Oversee implementation of the program consistent with this policy and coordinating all Your School efforts to adopt IPM.

Track all pesticide use and ensure that records of pesticide use are available to the public upon request.

****Please remember all California schools are required to notify and post, per AB2260;  therefore, that is not written into the sample policy.****

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