AHERA Inspections

The Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) requires the School District (SDP) to inspect schools for asbestos-containing building material and prepare management plans that make recommendations for the reduction of asbestos hazards.

What Are AHERA Inspections?

AHERA Inspections

The Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) requires the School District (SDP) to inspect schools for asbestos-containing building material and prepare management plans that make recommendations for the reduction of asbestos hazards. For more information about AHERA rules, the responsibilities of the District and asbestos itself, please visit the EPA’s website.

Specifically, AHERA rules require SDP to take the following actions:

  • Perform an original inspection and re-inspection every three years of asbestos-containing material
  • Develop, maintain, and update an asbestos management plan and keep a copy at the school
  • Provide yearly notification to parent, teacher, and employee organizations regarding the availability of the school’s asbestos management plan and any asbestos abatement actions taken or planned in the school
  • Designate a contact person to ensure the responsibilities of the local education agency are properly implemented
  • Perform periodic surveillance of known or suspected asbestos-containing building material
  • Ensure that properly-accredited professionals perform inspections and response actions and prepare management plans
  • Provide custodial staff with asbestos-awareness training

SDP’s Office of Environmental Management & Services implements programming that complies with the AHERA requirements. The District’s AHERA Coordinator is a Pennsylvania-licensed AHERA Building Inspector and Management Planner.

 

How to Read AHERA Inspection Reports

How to read the reports:

Each report contains a lot of information. Here, in order to help you navigate the reports, we outline the information that is most important to parents and families. The Executive Summary, sections 1 through 5, contains the first group of tables that give a snapshot of all of the materials in the building. When you click on a report below, look for the following tables in order:

  • Confirmed Asbestos Containing Building Material for this location: a list of all material within the building that we know contains asbestos. This material should never be disturbed.
  • Assumed Asbestos Containing Building Material for this location: a list of material within the building that might contain asbestos but was not tested. This material should never be disturbed.
  • Non-asbestos Containing Building Material for this location: a list of all material within the building that has been tested and confirmed to not contain asbestos. These material are not hazardous.
  • Non-suspect Asbestos Containing Building Material for this location: a list of building material that typically never contains asbestos. These materials have not been tested and are not hazardous.

*For the purposes of testing for asbestos, Auditoriums are considered separate structures from the rest of the building. Therefore, if a building has an auditorium, there will be a separate table.

After this first group of tables, scroll down to Section II find the Room by Room reports. These reports give specific details about every space in the building. Use the definitions to the right to help you read the room by room reports.

AHERA Inspection Report Definitions

Definitions:

  • ACBM = Asbestos Containing Building Material
  • ACM = Asbestos Containing Material
  • Confirmed = describes material that has been tested and found to contain asbestos.
  • Assumed = describes material that has not been tested, but may contain asbestos.
  • Non-Suspect = A term for material that characteristically does not contain asbestos and is not tested for asbestos.
  • NAD = No Asbestos Detected. Describes material that was tested and determined to not contain asbestos.
  • Element = Some campuses have multiple buildings (main building, annex, little school house, etc.). Element denotes the structure that the information is referring to. The main building is typically denoted as “1”.
  • SF, LF, EA = Square Feet, Linear Feet, Each