2021 International Building Code: 308.5 Institutional Group I-4 Day Care Facilities
Child Care Center Design
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Bleachers, Folding Seating & Grandstands
“View of the Colosseum” 1747 Giovanni Paolo Panini
Play is the making of civilization—how one plays the game
more to the point than whether the game is won or lost.
We follow development of best practice literature for spectator seating structures produced by the International Code Council, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA 102), the American Society of Civil Engineers Structural Engineering Institute (ASCE SEI-7). There are also federal regulations promulgated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. (Note that some of the regulations were inspired by the several regional building code non-profits before the International Code Council was formed in year ~ 2000)
The parent standard from the International Code Council is linked below:
ICC 300 Standard on Bleachers, Folding and Telescopic Seating, and Grandstands
The development of this standard is coordinated with the ICC Group A Codes. We have tracked concepts in it previous revisions; available in the link below.
2024/2025/2026 ICC CODE DEVELOPMENT SCHEDULE
As always, we encourage our colleagues with workpoint experience to participate directly in the ICC Code Development process. CLICK HERE to get started.
Issue: [15-283]
Category: Athletics & Recreation, Architectural, Public Safety
Contact: Mike Anthony, Jack Janveja, Richard Robben
Virtual reality technology in evacuation simulation of sport stadiums
LEARN MORE:
Sports Equipment & Surfaces
Student Membership | @ASTMStudentFans
“The National Game” 1889 Arthur Streeton
Sport is the bloom and glow of a perfect health.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sport programs, facilities and equipment support one of the most visible and emotionally engaging enterprises in the education communities. These programs are central to the brand identity of the community and last, but not least, physical activity keeps our young people healthy in body and mind.
ASTM International is one of the first names among the 300-odd ANSI accredited standards setting organizations whose due processes discover and promulgate the standard of care for the design, construction, operations and maintenance of the facilities that support these enterprises. The parent committee is linked below:
ASTM Committee F08 on Sports Equipment, Playing Surfaces, and Facilities
While ASTM bibliography is largely product-oriented, there are many titles that set the standard of care for sport enterprises and the accessories to these enterprises. To identify a few:
ASTM F1774 Standard Specification for Climbing and Mountaineering Carabiners
ASTM F2060-00(2011) Standard Guide for Maintaining Cool Season Turfgrasses on Athletic Fields
ASTM F1703-13 Standard Guide for Skating and Ice Hockey Playing Facilities
ASTM F1953-10 Standard Guide for Construction and Maintenance of Grass Tennis Courts
ASTM F1081-09(2015) Standard Specification for Competition Wrestling Mats
ASTM F2950-14 Standard Safety and Performance Specification for Soccer Goals
When the General Requirements of an athletic facility construction project indicates: “Conform to all applicable standards” then, in the case of an sport facility, the ASTM title is likely the document that defines the standard of care from a product standpoint. Interoperability of the products in a sport setting are quite another matter.
At the international level, we track action in ISO/TC 83 Sports and other recreational facilities and equipment administered globally by the Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V. ASTM International is ANSI’s Technical Advisory Group for this committee.
University of Maine
The ASTM standards development process depends heavily on face-to-face meetings — typically two times per year – in different parts of the United States. The benefit of this arrangement lies in the quality of discussion among subject matter experts that results produced from face-to-face discussion. The price to pay for this quality, however, lies in the cost of attendance for the user-interest in the education industry. Relatively few subject matter experts directly employed by a school district, college or university who are charged with lowering #TotalCostofOwnership can attend the meetings. Many of the subject matter experts who are in attendance at the ASTM meetings from the education industry tend to be faculty who are retained by manufacturers, insurance, testing laboratories, conformity and compliance interests. (See our discussion of Incumbent Interests)
That much said, ASTM welcomes subject matter experts on its technical committees (Click here) We encourage participation by end users from the education industry — many of them in the middle of athletic facility management organization charts. The parent committee meets twice a year; after which we usually find public review redlines developed during those meetings to hit our radar. The link to the schedule of face-to-face meetings appears below:
Note that the August 2020 cancelled but the November 2020 meeting still appears on the schedule. It is likely that much of the committee work will be done online.
We are required to review draft ASTM consensus products with some care — owing to copyright restrictions — so we do it interactively online during teleconferences devoted to Sport. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
Issue: [7-7] [10-32] [13-165] [20-156]
Category: Sport, Management, Risk Management
Contact: Mike Anthony, Jack Janveja, George Reiher, Richard Robben
Harvard upgrades stadium field | ASTM develops turf safety standards http://t.co/pObQduSg0Khttp://t.co/wRoCPDeVbZ pic.twitter.com/7gLp9tO3B1
— Standards Michigan (@StandardsMich) April 22, 2015
Writing Boards
Liebfrauenschule Cloppenburg
First week of classes and it’s good to see our common room blackboards covered in math again! Welcome home to all our mathematicians! #harvardmath pic.twitter.com/Jm7OauGA6r
— Harvard Department of Mathematics (@HarvardMath) September 3, 2025
The central element in any educational space is the writing board; sometimes a “blackboard”, “chalkboard” or a “dry-erase board” — all used for teaching. During today’s session we survey the product and the installation standards with special attention to optics, illumination, mounting heights and distances.
EN 14434: Writing boards for educational institutions. The primary European standard specifically for school whiteboards and chalkboards. Covers safety requirements (no sharp edges, stable frames, non-toxic surfaces), magnetic performance, writability/erasure, durability, fire resistance, and hygiene (easy-to-clean surfaces).
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ASTM F2957-13 (2021): Standard Specification for Whiteboards. American standard for dry-erase whiteboards. Defines requirements for surface gloss, erasability, stain resistance, scratch resistance, and color fastness.
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Some state level procurement and installation standards — Kansas and Connecticut, for example — are de facto standards for visibility, accessibility and mounting hardware.
Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
School stuff from reindeers to guest readers. We’re having a blast in 2nd grade! 🫶🏼 pic.twitter.com/TnRaWXHRC0
— Jenny (@RiseShineJenny) December 4, 2025
Interiors
Donegan Acoustics
Today we unpack the latest in codes, standards, guidelines, recommendations and safety legislation that set the standard of care for the design, manufacture and maintenance of interior fixtures such as carpet, furniture, bookshelves and ceiling tiles, plumbing fixtures — a large part of what construction industry professionals find in CSIGroup MasterFormat Division 12 — Furnishings. — i.e. “Things that are not nailed down” Such things can elude infrastructure budgets that are dominated by real assets fixed in place.
Other accredited standards developers in this domain:
APPA Leadership in Education Facilities
ASHRAE International
ASTM International
International Code Council
Illumination Engineering Society
National Fire Protection Association
National Floor Safety Institute
Underwriters Laboratories
There are others.
In large research universities, it is common for building service personnel engaged in keeping facilities clean and tidy to constitute the largest proportion of permanent employees.
I-Code Group B Committee Action Hearings
Committee Action Hearings Webcasts – Group B #1
Complete Monograph (2630 Pages)
IBC Rebuttal on G153-25 Performance Electrical Design
(response with hyperlinks to supporting research)
Partial listing. We have until July 15th to comment on committee action
Our proposal G153-25: Page 754
Michigan Modular G195-25: Page 859
“Clinical Need” definition for enhanced security: Page 765
“Electric Vehicle Charger” definition by the National Parking Association/Parking Consultant’s Council: Page 457
“EV Charging Space” definition: Page 458
“EV Supply Equipment” definition: Page 460
ADM20-25 Authority of building official in natural disasters and high hazard regions, p141
ASM3-25 Electrical equipment re-use, p195
G2-25. New definition for Animal Housing Facilities, p438
S57-25. Quite a bit of back and forth on wind and PV “farms, p1053, et. al (“Wind and solar farms are different from animal and produce farms” — Mike Anthony)
G143-25 Lighting Section 1204L remote rooms, windowless rooms, University of Texas Austin student accommodation costs, p. 737-
PM31-25 Housekeeping and sanitation in owned property as law, p1794
PM50-25, Sleeping units to be private, p.1829
RB146-25. Energy storage systems installed in garages, requirements for physical protection, p. 2195
RB144-25, Load capacity ratings and compliance with NFPA 855, p. 2186
RB143-25, Working roof walking access around solar panels, p. 2180
SP1-25 New definition of base flood elevation for purpose of correlating requirements for electrical safety, et. al, p. 2578
Link to Track 1 and Track 2 Webcast
Modular Office Furniture Wiring
2026 NEC CMP-18 Public Input Report
“Office in a Small City” (1953) / Edward Hopper
Modular furniture systems with integral power and telecommunication fittings require attention to power and digital pathways. “Modular systems furniture” is a generic term for bundles of panels, worksurfaces, shelves, and other items sold by a single manufacturer as a package for furnishing offices. The modular furniture system environment is characterized by close proximity to electrical energy. Where there is electrical energy there are concerns for shock and fire safety.
Fire safety considerations appear in NFPA 70 National Electrical Code (NEC)– generally in Articles 210 (Branch Circuits), Article 220 (Branch Circuit, Feeder and Service Load Calculations) — and with more specific safety considerations appearing in Articles 604 (Manufactured Wiring Systems) and Article 605 (Office Furnishings). The current edition of the National Electrical Code is linked below:
Public Access 2023 National Electrical Code
Over the past 30-odd years modular furniture manufacturers have worked out a lot of the bugs in products; making it easier for furniture contractors to deliver a safer and more effective installation. What remains are site-specific conditions — such as lighting load, current draw of space heaters and personal air conditioners through the furniture power pathway — that must be reckoned with. A sample of other considerations:
- Harmonic heating of the furniture pathway caused by non-linear, harmonic load
- The risk of double-phasing when circuit breakers are joined with handle ties back at the panelboard and share a neutral
- Any lighting equipment used with the partitions must have of properly sized cord no more than 9 ft long
- Modularity in power tap cords (“whips’) between furniture raceways and the first gathering point
There are other safety and sustainability issues related to USB outlets, and data/voice outlets[2] that we will cover in another post and in our collaborations with IEEE SCC-18 and the IEEE Education & Healthcare Facilities Committee (IEEE E&H).
Seneca College / Toronto
We find office wiring a relatively lively “promontary” in safety and sustainability circles. The transcript of debate among interior wiring experts is always a good place to listen in on the technical discussion; linked below:
Public Input Report – 2023 National Electrical Code Panel 7
Public Input Report – 2023 National Electrical Code Panel 18
We find manufactured wiring concepts tracking that effects office occupancies for all industries. Market incumbents continue advocacy for more ground fault and tamper-resistant receptacles in day care and gymnasium.
A more significant debate tracks in Chapter 2 — related to office modular furniture wiring because electrical load calculations determine how designers specify branch circuits for all occupancy classifications present in education communities (which is nearly every occupancy type defined in the International Building Code):
Public Input Report – 2023 National Electrical Code Panel 2
,Standards Michigan, beginning with its inspiration in the original University of Michigan standards advocacy enterprises, has a long and storied engagement with Chapter 2 of the NEC covered here and also academic literature and also in research sponsored by NFPA’s Fire Protection Research Foundation.
We always encourage our workpoint experts in the thousands of electrical and telecommunication units in the education and healthcare facilities industry to participate directly in the NFPA Code Development process (CLICK HERE to join a committee).
Since both the National Electrical Code and the National Electrical Safety Code revision cycles are roughly coincident in 2021 we working on electrical power issues every day, collaborating with the IEEE E&H Committee. Online meetings are open to everyone.
Issue: [16-102]
Category: Electrical, Interior Furnishings, Telecommunications
Colleagues: Mike Anthony, Jim Harvey, Massimo Mitolo
[1] Rightsizing electrical power systems in large commercial facilities
[2] Commercial Building Telecommunications Cabling Standard
More
Security 400
“We worry about what a child will become tomorrow,
yet we forget that he is someone today.”
– Stacia Tauscher
Today we run a status check on the stream of technical and management standards evolving to assure the highest possible level of security in education communities. The literature expands significantly from an assortment of national standards-setting bodies, trade associations, ad hoc consortia and open source standards developers. CLICK HERE for a sample of our work in this domain.
School security is big business in the United States. According to a report by Markets and Markets, the global school and campus security market size was valued at USD 14.0 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 21.7 billion by 2025, at a combined annual growth rate of 7.2% during the forecast period. Another report by Research And Markets estimates that the US school security market will grow at a compound annual growth rate of around 8% between 2020 and 2025, driven by factors such as increasing incidents of school violence, rising demand for access control and surveillance systems, and increasing government funding for school safety initiatives.
Because the pace of the combined annual growth rate of the school and campus security market is greater than the growth rate of the education “industry” itself, we’ve necessarily had to break down our approach to this topic into modules:
Security 100. A survey of all the technical and management codes and standards for all educational settings — day care, K-12, higher education and university affiliated healthcare occupancies.
Security 200. Queries into the most recent public consultations on the components and interoperability* of supporting technologies
Video surveillance: indoor and outdoor cameras, cameras with night vision and motion detection capabilities and cameras that can be integrated with other security systems for enhanced monitoring and control.
Access control: doors, remote locking, privacy and considerations for persons with disabilities.
Panic alarms: These devices allow staff and students to quickly and discreetly alert authorities in case of an emergency.
Metal detectors: These devices scan for weapons and other prohibited items as people enter the school.
Mass notification systems: These systems allow school administrators to quickly send emergency alerts and notifications to students, staff, and parents.
Intrusion detection systems: These systems use sensors to detect unauthorized entry and trigger an alarm.
GPS tracking systems: These systems allow school officials to monitor the location of school buses and track the movements of students during field trips and other off-campus activities.
Security 300. Regulatory and management codes and standards; a great deal of which are self-referencing.
Security 400. Advanced Topics. NFPA 731 Standard for the Installation of Premises Security Systems
As always, we reckon first cost and long-term maintenance cost, including software maintenance for the information and communication technologies (i.e. anything with wires) installed in the United States. Cybersecurity is outside our wheelhouse and beyond our expertise. In order to do any of the foregoing reasonably well, we have to leave cybersecurity standards to others.
Bob Hope Primary School Kadena Air Base
Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association
Education Community Safety catalog is one of the fast-growing catalogs of best practice literature. In developing district security plans, K-12 school leaders stress that school safety is a cross-functional responsibility and every individual’s participation drives the success of overall safety protocols. We link a small sample below and update ahead of every Security colloquium.
Artificial Intelligence Tries (and Fails) to Detect Weapons in School
Could AI be the future of preventing school shootings?
Executive Order 13929 of June 16, 2020 Safe Policing for Safe Communities
National Center for Education Statistics: School Safety and Security Measures
International Code Council
2021 International Building Code
Section 1010.1.9.4 Locks and latches
Section 1010.2.13 Delayed egress.
Section 1010.2.14 Controlled egress doors in Groups I-1 and I-2.
Free Access: NFPA 72 National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code
Free Access: NFPA 731 Standard for the Installation of Premises Security Systems
IEEE: Design and Implementation of Campus Security System Based on Internet of Things
APCO/NENA 2.105 Emergency Incident Data Document
C-TECC Tactical Emergency Casualty Care Guidelines
Department of Transportation Emergency Response Guidebook 2016
NENA-STA-004.1-2014 Next Generation United States Civic Location Data Exchange Format
Example Emergency Management and Disaster Preparedness Plan (Tougaloo College, Jackson, Mississippi)
Partner Alliance for Safer Schools
Federal Bureau of Investigation Academia Program
Most Dangerous Universities in America
Federal Bureau of Investigation: Uniform Crime Reporting Program
* Interoperability refers to the ability of different technologies or systems to communicate and work together seamlessly. In the context of school security technologies, interoperability can help improve the effectiveness of security systems and make it easier for school personnel to manage and respond to potential security threats. Here’s what we look for:
- Standardization: By standardizing communication protocols and data formats, school security technologies can be made more compatible with each other, making it easier for different systems to communicate and share information.
- Integration: School security technologies can be integrated with each other to provide a more comprehensive security solution. For example, access control systems can be integrated with video surveillance systems to automatically trigger alerts when an unauthorized person enters a restricted area.
- Open Architecture: Open architecture solutions enable different security systems to be connected and communicate with each other regardless of their manufacturer or supplier. This approach makes it easier to integrate different technologies and avoid vendor lock-in.
- Cloud-based Solutions: Cloud-based security solutions can enable interoperability by providing a centralized platform for managing and monitoring different security systems. This approach can also simplify the deployment of security technologies across multiple locations.
- Collaboration: School security technology providers can work together to develop interoperability standards and best practices that can be adopted across the industry. Collaboration can help drive innovation and improve the effectiveness of security systems.
New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwB pic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
— USPTO (@uspto) July 13, 2023
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