What is School IPM?

The Illinois School IPM Program is a collaborative effort with both K-12 school districts and institutions of higher education. Our K-12 School IPM Program is support by our Illinois state law that requires all schools and daycare facilities to have an integrated pest management (IPM) plan unless they can document that IPM is economically unfeasible. Recently, the state has expanded these requirements to include practicing IPM for lawn and turf care in addition to pest control in physical school buildings. Our Institution of Higher Education School IPM Program is support by the University of Illinois’ administration. In 2009, Illinois’ Governor Quinn initiated the Illinois Sustainable University Compact and invited institutions of higher education to sign the proclamation. The University of Illinois signed on to this compact and agreed to a number of items including the pledge to reduce pesticide use by establishing integrated pest management practices at all facilities on our campuses.

One of the goals of the 2013-2015 University of Illinois School IPM program is to, overall improve and expand the program by, obtaining Green Shield Certification for Division of Housing IPM Program and Ikenberry Dining Hall, expanding IPM implementation at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus in cooperation with the Division of Housing and Terminix for kitchen and dining areas in Residence Halls, expanding IPM implementation at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus in cooperation with the Division of Housing Facilities & Services Water Station personnel , as well as establishing an IPM Advisory Committee for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus.

We also plan to evaluate and collect data on the two area schools which have implemented School IPM practices, the Vermillion Area Special Education (VASE) School, and the Westville School district. We will also be evaluating the IPM program that has been implemented at the University regarding pesticide usage and pest data.

In tandem with the Illinois Department of Public Health, we also plan on establishing new school IPM programs in school districts that are declining implementing an IPM plan due to cost concerns. Along with providing continual support to the Westville School district and VASE to solve new pest management issues that are encountered by their pest management professional.

We are also undergoing development of sustainable in-depth training programs for pest management professionals and school IPM coordinators to increase their knowledge of school IPM and pest diagnostics in cooperation with the NC School IPM Working Group.

More Information about what IPM is