Hundreds or students each day are forced to use unsanitary and dirty restrooms at schools around the country.

To assist school facilities managers and custodial staff, The ISSA developed a Clean Standard for K-12 schools. Industry experts, including those from facility management and school communities, produced this standard to not only assist staff but to help create a cleaner restroom environment for students.

Together, The ISSA and the Cleaning Industry Research Institute (CIRI) worked to create the Clean Standard, which is essentially a methodology for measuring the efficacy of cleaning.

The standard uses ATP measurements to provide “ranges of clean,” which is paired with traditional, onsite audits. The goal of using the standard methodology is to ensure school facilities remain safe and sanitary for students and faculty, as well as providing codified corrective actions when the appropriate level of cleaning is not being achieved.

About the ISSA Clean Standard

The standard does not prescribe any specific products or processes; it simply provides a measurement and monitoring framework. Schools can choose to use any ATP system they desire to gauge cleanliness, along with accompanying software for tracking data.

“ATP sanitation monitoring systems can be utilized with accompanying data processing software to upload testing site information and to download testing results—using this combination allows for the tracking and analysis of a facility’s testing results,” reports Infection Control Today.

The standard was developed to deliver scientific validation of cleaning effectiveness. So, data collection and tracking are an essential part of using the system. Onsite audit results can be compared to various “ranges of clean,” which were developed using ATP measurements of high-touch surfaces from within numerous schools nationwide.

Restrooms and the ISSA Standards

In the restroom survey, several things are checked, some that are within the realm of custodial staff and others that are in the jurisdiction of physical plant or building operations staff -- but many fall in the gray area in between. For instance, it’s clear that a custodial staff can’t be expected to address water faucets, toilets or urinals that aren’t operating properly. However multiple standards address restroom items that are expected to function properly and be free of soil and dust.

With the implementation of the ISSA Clean Standard, K-12 schools can not only improve their restroom sanitation and maintenance practices, they can also rely on program data to calm parents’ concerns about school conditions, validate performance and value, and even justify budget expenditures and increased cleaning frequency.

A Clean Slate to Measure

Starting with a clean slate could be the solution to your bathroom problem in your K-12 school. The ISSA provided the standards but if you can’t attain them because of old and dingy tile, it may be time to consider restoration. Tile restoration service providers can create a crystal clean slate for your custodial staff to maintain.

This is an excerpt from our full report, available here.