WVU researchers have calculated one bad air quality day can cause 54,000 students to miss more than two weeks of school. (WVU Photo/Micaela Morrissette)
As the school year begins in many areas, new West Virginia University research finds poor air quality may keep tens of thousands of students out of school for weeks each year, hitting young students and children of color the hardest.
A study by Mustahsin Ul Aziz, a doctoral student in natural resource economics at the WVU Davis College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and graduate research assistant at the WVU Regional Research Institute, indicates that even when air quality meets federal safety standards, it can still affect students’ health and ability to attend school.
Chronic absenteeism — defined as missing at least 15 school days per year — can affect learning, graduation rates and long-term student success.
“This isn’t just about one or two days out sick,” Aziz said. “It’s about students missing weeks of learning and we’re seeing that poor air quality is a major part of the problem.”
With faculty advisor Levan Elbakidze, professor of resource economics and management in the WVU Davis College, Aziz published the results in Environmental and Resource Economics. The study drew data from about 25,000 schools nationwide and used air quality reports, wind direction and satellite data to track how pollution moves.
“It is most likely that students who are chronically absent are more vulnerable to poor air quality than an average student,” Elbakidze said. “These more vulnerable students may need additional help and attention to mitigate the effects of air pollution.”
If every U.S. county had just one day of poor air quality in a year, the combined impact could lead to chronic absenteeism in about 54,000 students nationwide. Chronic absenteeism can contribute to problems like lower test scores and retention rates, higher dropout risk, higher unemployment, lower earnings and impaired social development.
“Even single-day absences can be detrimental for children, so if they’re missing 15 days in an academic year, the effects compound,” Aziz explained.
The study also found lower-income and minority students are more likely to be affected by chronic absenteeism due to poor air quality.
“In places where housing is cheaper, pollution is often higher,” Aziz said. “Unfortunately, those tend to be the areas where disadvantaged families live, so their children are more exposed and more likely to suffer the consequences.”
Likewise, younger students — especially those in elementary school — are hit hardest by poor air quality. One bad day of high carbon monoxide, for example, led to nearly twice as many absences among younger children compared to high school students.
The study looked at the six common air pollutants tracked by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — carbon monoxide, lead, ground-level ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter. The latter consists of fine, inhalable particles that come from sources like smoke, dust and car exhaust.
Aziz said previous air quality studies have focused only on particulate matter and carbon monoxide, adding that “very few studies looked into all six, and nobody was looking into chronic absenteeism.”
While he analyzed data on a national level, Aziz said the framework he developed can be adapted to focus on a particular state and tools developed from this research could one day help identify schools or counties most at risk.
He said he hopes counties and school boards will be able to use his findings to design individual solutions for their districts. For example, indoor air filtration, green spaces and school ventilation systems can reduce the impact of poor air days, while schools can take extra precautions on days when pollution levels spike.
“We want to build a framework schools can actually use,” Aziz said. “This is a problem we can fix, if we know where to look.”
The research raises questions about whether the EPA’s definition of a “safe” air quality day is genuinely safe for everyone. Aziz suggested both indoor and outdoor air quality should play a role in that designation.
“If your outdoor air quality is bad, your indoor quality is going to be worse if there is less ventilation. Our figures likely represent a lower bound estimate of the true impact, as they are based solely on outdoor air quality.”
West Virginia’s numbers are worse than average. While the national rate of chronic absenteeism was about 28% in the 2022-23 school year, 34% of West Virginia students missed school.
“Low-income places like West Virginia and Appalachia historically had higher air pollution due to the mining industry,” Aziz acknowledged. “Pollution isn’t just an environmental issue — it’s an education issue too.
“This is important for students,” he said. “It’s the air they breathe.”
-WVU-
lj/8/12/25
MEDIA CONTACT: Laura Jackson
Research Writer
WVU Research Communications
304-293-5507; Laura.Jackson@mail.wvu.edu
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