MN SF2203

Commissioner of education must establish a fund beginning in the 2023-2024 school year to promote healthy learning and teaching environments, reduce illness-related absenteeism, improve staff morale and retention, and improve student performance.

Fund money must be used specifically to procure and install in-ceiling active upper-room ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) devices to remove viruses, bacteria, fungi, and mold from indoor spaces.

UVGI devices must demonstrate 80 to 88 percent removal of airborne bacteria and 64 percent removal on non-high-touch surfaces, with laboratory testing for gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, fungi, viral surrogates, and SARS-CoV-2.

Devices must operate independently from HVAC systems, draw in-room air through fans into a sealed chamber for pathogen neutralization, and return treated air to the same room in less than one second without generating chemicals or ions.

$20,000,000 is appropriated from the general fund in fiscal year 2024 to the commissioner of education for school districts to apply for and install approved UVGI pathogen removal devices.