A Proactive Program
Although School IPM is not mandated on the federal level, several states already have mandatory School IPM programs (e.g. West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and California). Most of these mandates were the result of concerned parents and public interest groups putting pressure on state legislators to change pest control policies in public schools.
However, mandates are problematic for public schools because no funding is provided for the schools to receive IPM training. Also, no state money is provided for the enforcement of IPM. For these reasons, many states are establishing volunteer School IPM programs (e.g. Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina) as a proactive measure.
These volunteer IPM programs have achieved great success by using the infrastructure of the Cooperative Extension Service and state universities to provide IPM education and technical support to local school districts. We at Virginia Tech and the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service are ready to train and support all Virginia schools who wish to join the volunteer School IPM program. It's free and we invite you to take advantage of this IPM training opportunity.
