Investigation of the environmental health and safety status of primary schools in Torbat Heydariyeh city in 2016-2017

School is one of the most important places for people’s mental development the effects of which can be observed through everyone’s educational and professional life. This study investigated the health and safety status in elementary schools of Torbat Heydariyeh City. This descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in 2016-17 on 68 elementary schools in Torbat Heydariyeh City, which were categorized based on gender and being governmental or non-governmental. Information was collected throughfield surveys and interviews with school officialsand using a standard checklist provided by Ministry of Health. Descriptive data were analyzed using MS Office’s Excel version 2010 and statistical analysis was performed by SPSS version 22. Chi-square andFisher's exact test were used to analyze the variable. Our results showed that based on the defined triple levels for schools, i.e. poor, moderate and desirable, the analyzed schools were categorized as moderate or desirable.-. Accordingly, 47.4%and 36.4%, of public and non-governmental schools were found to be in moderate level; and 52.6% and 63.6% of them were in desirable level, respectively. In general, we found no significantdifference in the health status of the schools when analyzed basedon the administrationtype (governmental and none) or gender (male vs. female). Considering the presented results and the importance of elementary schools as the first post-family community for the students, the efforts of the institutions involved in education with the aim of establishing maximum health requirements are essential.