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California’s Healthy Schools Act of 2000 put into place right-to-know requirements such as notification, posting, and recordkeeping for pesticides used at public schools and public child day care facilities. For more information, including a copy of the laws, go to DPR’s School IPM (Integrated Pest Management) Web site..

The California Department of Pesticide Regulation provides a lot of useful information for parents, schools and pest control professionals, including Frequently Asked Questions about the program, and an attractive, fun school-year pest control calendar full of information about controlling all types of pests, from to rats and mice, to tree pests and turf weeds.

Here are just a couple of the Frequently Asked Questions about DPR’s School IPM Program and the Healthy Schools Act:

What is a pesticide?

Under state and federal law, a pesticide is any substance that controls, destroys, repels, or attracts a pest. Pesticides include insecticides, insect repellents, miticides, herbicides, fungicides, fumigants, nematicides, rodenticides, avicides, plant growth regulators, defoliants, desiccants, antimicrobials, and algicides. More

Does the Healthy Schools Act have a list of approved pesticides for use by schools or child day care facilities?

The Healthy Schools Act does not establish a list of pesticides approved for schools or child day care facilities. However, DPR does maintain a list of pesticides that are prohibited for use in schools or at child day care facilities. See DPR’s Web site (www.cdpr.ca.gov/schoolipm, click on “Pesticides Prohibited from Use” in the column on the right). More

First day of school is just around the corner here in our Sacramento pest control region—here’s wishing you and your family a safe, pest-free 2017-2018 school year!