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When Ada Malavila was looking for a new apartment in 2021, she had one big goal. Find a place with air conditioning.
She learned the hard way that cold air is more than amenities. When her daughter was a toddler, she remembers the baby who woke up to tears from the heat. Malabilla calmed her with a wet cloth and kept her cool in a diaper.
That’s what led her to her latest apartment in Panorama City when it was time to return to Los Angeles four years ago. Apartments in the hotter San Fernando Valley usually have air conditioning.
“It’s just that comfort, you can do a variety of tasks and you don’t have to worry about it,” Maravila said.
Still, there were moments when her electricity bills surged and she had to deal with her asking for help.
As we dig into parenting, interim kindergarten, health, and other issues affecting children ages 5 to 5, we will be involved in journalism funded by our community.
Research data from the Stanford Centre on childhood shows that families (all income levels, race, ethnicity, and local families) are increasingly considering how increasingly extreme weather conditions affect them. More than half of families with young children across the state are concerned about the effects, according to data from the Center’s rapid research project, which examines childhood and family wellbeing. In particular, fever is a serious concern.
Research shows that outdoor playtime is significantly reduced, whether at home or at school, to avoid harsh suns. To avoid overheating, daytime outings often focus on air conditioning and playing in the water. And parents maintain high vigilance to ensure that young children stay hydrated and rested, as they are too little to understand their needs on their own.
Marabilla sends the kids to school with hats and sunscreen bottles in their lunch boxes.
She is also one of a group of parents who are pushing for more schools to help children deal with fever.
How extreme fever affects young children
Babies and children under the age of 6 are more vulnerable to heat fatigue and heat stroke than most adults. Their bodies get hotter faster, they can spend more time outside and don’t always know how to recognize or communicate discomfort they may be experiencing due to high temperatures, Abigail Stewart Kern said he is a clinical social worker who is managing director of the Stanford Center in early childhood.
There are also developmental and emotional consequences that stem from the instability that families may experience when routines are interrupted in extreme heat, she added.
Research shows that about a quarter of families with young children in California experienced at least one extreme weather event between 2022 and 2024. This does not include the wildfire that destroyed the Los Angeles area in January, expelling tens of thousands of residents and disrupting childcare.
More than 1,000 parents of children under the age of six were involved in the survey. He ranked outdoor playtime, negative health effects and household damage as the biggest issues families must navigate.
After the Eton fire hit Altadena, extreme weather outcomes have become much more realistic for Lauren Quan Madrid. She was worried about the happiness of her sophomore and preschool children at the time, as the smoke drifted through the air and towards her Highland Park home.
But even now, six months later, the kids still ask, “Are we safe? Is there a fire?”
“We’re not only trying to endure the heat, we’re seeing what’s going on. Perhaps for the rest of my life, I’ll have to endure – and my children and my grandchildren said,” Quan Madrid said.
Parents push the district to step into the climate
Stewart Kern said parents are starting to stack cities, schools and childcare centres to take steps to help children provide relief from the fever.
Community organizations such as schools and nature encourage parents, such as Marabilla, to learn that what needs to happen on campus needs to be better protected against the heat hazards. They want more green spaces with trees, landscaping, shaded structures, updated heating, ventilation and air condensation systems.
Although it’s slow, the progress is coming. Other school districts across the LA and state are considering plans to deal with extreme heat.
After extending years of pressure and a record-breaking heat wave in recent years, LAUSD announced plans in April 2024 to upgrade more than 600 schools to include more plants, trees, grass, mulch and permeable pavement that provide relief from the heat. The project is expected to be completed early in 2035.
The plan uses $58 million allocated to outdoor education initiatives such as the June 2022 Greening, and relies on grants and other funding instruments. An estimated investment of up to $3 billion will be required to complete.
Last year, the Parent Union successfully lobbyed Pasadena, which was unified to commit some of its $900 million school facility bonds, which are part of the Measurement R, for school yard greening. The district also relies on community partnerships and grants to transform outdoor areas from asphalt to native gardens and natural playgrounds. Renovations support learning opportunities for children in agriculture, for example.
In 2022, Long Beach passed a funding bond to modernize the campus. Some of it is used in some schools to provide shaded structures. The district is advancing efforts to provide shelter from the sun, create more green spaces and install HVAC systems throughout the school.
As a pillar of the community, schools should be part of community relief, and the executive director of the Los Angeles Alliance for the New Economy, the father’s father hopes that one day they can turn to schools for its safety. The Alliance is working with LAUSD to prioritize and fund climate-friendly projects across the district.
But there’s more to be done, he said.
This article is part of the Times Early Childhood Education Initiative and focuses on learning and development for California children from birth to age 5. To learn more about the initiative and its charity funders, visit latimes.com/earlyed.
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