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IWBI Supports Future-Ready Facilities Grant to Modernize U.S. School Infrastructure

Published: April 23, 2026

A new initiative launched by Attune is designed to address a growing challenge across the United States: aging school facilities that lack visibility into critical building performance metrics.

The Future-Ready Facilities Grant will select 25 school districts to implement indoor air quality (IAQ), energy, and water monitoring technologies and reporting practices that help districts measure building performance, prioritize maintenance and capital planning, and transparently communicate progress.
The program provides $500,000 total in support across the cohort. The program prioritizes impact and need, and encourages applications from Title I and underserved districts, tribal schools, and districts facing infrastructure or budget constraints. Applications are open now and close May 15, 2026.

The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) is proud to be one of several partners to support evaluations, alongside the Center for Green Schools, Green Schools National Network, and the 21st Century School Fund. These partners bring expertise in healthy buildings, equity, and long-term infrastructure planning.

The grant is launched at a time when the nation’s school facilities funding deficit is not only steep but continues to surge. The latest State of Our Schools report, released last year by the 21st Century School Fund, the National Council on School Facilities (NCSF) and IWBI, shows that the U.S. now faces a $90 billion shortfall in school facility funding every single year, despite significant progress local school districts have made to ramp up their investments. The gap has continued to widen as school construction costs climb, building inventories expand, and aging facilities require more extensive maintenance, modernization, or replacement.

“Schools are being asked to meet higher standards for air quality, energy efficiency, and transparency without the budgets to match. This program helps close that gap by giving districts what they need to get started, prove what’s possible, and create a track record that state and local leaders can point to when it’s time to fund these efforts at scale.”

• Dr. Serene Almomen, CEO of Attune and a member of the Global Commission on Healthy Indoor Air

One of the grant’s main objectives is to support healthy indoor air within schools. A March 2026 congressional briefing on “Indoor Air Quality for a Healthier America” emphasized indoor air quality as a growing public policy priority, noting that despite decades of progress addressing outdoor pollution, indoor air quality remains largely unregulated and underfunded.

Learn more and apply for the Future-Ready Facilities Grant here.

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