Millions of learning days lost: Federal report shows school facility issues stretch beyond Virginia

RICHMOND, Va. — Mold delayed the start of school for students in Richmond. Air conditioning failures closed two Henrico County schools for a day.

But what students experienced in Central Virginia this school year was not unique.

A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found school facility problems disrupted teaching and learning across the country, with nearly one in five school districts canceling school because of facility issues during the 2024-25 school year. [gao.gov]

Those cancellations affected an estimated 2 million students and resulted in about 3.5 million lost days of learning, according to the GAO. [gao.gov]

The report also estimated that 47% of school districts had chronic facility issues that often disrupted learning. [gao.gov]

"It's nationwide. It's all across the country," Jacqueline Nowicki, the director of K-12 education research at GAO, told CBS 6. "It was surprising to me that there was no connection to poverty level in a district. It's just everywhere."

Central Virginia students experienced their own disruptions

The findings come after students and families in both Richmond and Henrico County dealt with significant school facility problems this year.

At Barack Obama Elementary School in Richmond, the first day of school was delayed after air quality testing showed elevated mold spore levels. Richmond Public Schools said an HVAC outage had caused mold growth in the basement and on some furniture. Reports of rodents were also made in several rooms. [wtvr.com]

One mother questioned why the problems weren't addressed over the summer.

"Their education does not deserve to be delayed because you didn't take the school as priority," she told CBS 6.

Just days later, mold concerns also forced Bellevue Elementary School to temporarily close while crews conducted remediation.

Students were moved to temporary learning locations as work continued inside the schools.
In Henrico County, Short Pump Middle School closed in September after problems with its cooling system left classrooms too hot for students.

One sixth grader described temperatures reaching the 90s.

"Yeah, it was like 92 degrees," she said. "It was really hot."

Harvie Elementary School had also dismissed students early the day before because of extremely warm temperatures.

‘A little waterfall’ inside a classroom

Researchers with the GAO found similarly extreme examples while examining school facilities around the country.

"We went to one school where a teacher said there's a little waterfall in her classroom every time it rains," Nowicki told CBS 6.

At another school, she said, students had to wear rain boots in an art classroom located in the basement when it rained.

"We visited classrooms where the teachers described temperatures getting over 90, 100, 110 degrees in the classroom," she said.

The GAO found that plumbing emergencies and extreme classroom temperatures were among the leading reasons districts canceled school because of facility problems. Researchers visited one district that canceled class after classroom temperatures reached 110 degrees.

How did schools get to this point?

CBS 6 Investigative Reporter Melissa Hipolit asked Nowicki how school buildings around the country were allowed to reach those conditions.

"You have to pay your salaries. You have to pay teachers, but you can put off that preventative maintenance one more year until you can't," Nowicki said. "And it's largely a capacity and a funding issue."

The GAO found 55% of school districts considered their most recent facilities budget insufficient to meet their needs.

The report also found districts frequently struggled to implement capital projects, and many deferred maintenance. The GAO warned deferred maintenance can ultimately lead to higher costs and found districts with limited ability to perform preventive maintenance experienced more chronic facility problems and more disruptions to instruction.

CBS 6 has previously reported that Richmond Public Schools paused scheduled spring and summer air-filter changes by an outside contractor while the division was “working through some budget issues,” according to emails obtained through a public records request. RPS said its own maintenance staff took over responsibility for changing the filters and has said it does not believe the decision to pause the contractor’s work contributed to the mold problems at Obama and Bellevue elementary schools.

CBS 6 also asked RPS whether its maintenance staff completed those scheduled filter changes across the division during the spring and summer of 2026 after the contractor's work was paused. RPS had not provided an answer to that question.

Richmond's superintendent has previously said the school division historically received about $2.5 million annually for significant  maintenance items.

A sspokesperson for Henrico County Public Schools previously told CBS 6 the division received about $2.5 million annually for all mechanical services, to include HVAC, mechanical, plumbing and roofing projects,  between 1999 and 2024.

What happens next?

School facilities and funding largely remain state and local issues, but the new report was produced after the GAO was asked to examine lost instructional time associated with facility-related school cancellations nationwide.

Nowicki said Congress now has several options.

"They can choose to have hearings, they can choose to introduce legislation, they can increase or decrease funding for ... different programs," she said. "I think they have a lot of options and obviously a lot of competing priorities, so I'll be interested to see where Congress chooses to take things from here."

The GAO also found districts face broader pressures as they try to maintain and improve their buildings. An estimated 73% of district leaders surveyed said limited state formula funding for facilities hindered their ability to meet their facility needs. [gao.gov]

The report pointed to preventive maintenance as one strategy for controlling costs and limiting disruptions, finding districts with less capacity to perform that maintenance experienced more chronic facility problems and interruptions to instruction

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