Prioritizing Equity in Providing Technical Assistance to Underserved School Districts under WRI’s Electric School Bus Initiative

The World Resources Institute (WRI) has established a list of 1,508 Priority Outreach Districts across the United States to prioritize free, deep technical assistance for school bus electrification. These districts are selected based on criteria related to income, race, air pollution levels, and tribal status to address systemic inequities in air pollution exposure. WRI provides these districts with tailored support covering road-mapping, procurement, and utility coordination, while offering generalized guidance to other districts.

• WRI identifies Priority Outreach Districts to address the disproportionate burden of vehicle-related air pollution on low-income students, students from Black households, and children with disabilities.
• The methodology for identifying priority districts uses data from the EPA and National Center for Education Statistics, focusing on four specific characteristics: tribal status, race (percentage of non-white or Hispanic residents), income (households below 200% of the federal poverty level), and pollution (ozone or PM2.5 levels).
• The list of Priority Outreach Districts grew from 1,007 in 2022 to 1,508 by November 2023 after WRI expanded its analysis from a nationwide level to a state-level application of the same equity criteria.
• Districts designated as Priority Outreach Districts receive deep technical assistance at no cost, including specialized support for procurement, stakeholder engagement, and coordination with utilities.
• WRI acknowledges that its data-driven methodology has limitations and may not capture every community that has suffered from historic disinvestment or discrimination.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Prioritizing Equity in Providing Technical Assistance to Underserved School Districts under WRI’s Electric School Bus Initiative. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2024-05/esb-priority-outreach-districts.pdf

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Prioritizing Equity in Providing Technical Assistance to Underserved School Districts under WRI’s Electric School Bus Initiative. n.d. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2024-05/esb-priority-outreach-districts.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Prioritizing Equity in Providing Technical Assistance to Underserved School Districts under WRI’s Electric School Bus Initiative |url=https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2024-05/esb-priority-outreach-districts.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendprioritizing, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Prioritizing Equity in Providing Technical Assistance to Underserved School Districts under WRI’s Electric School Bus Initiative}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2024-05/esb-priority-outreach-districts.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }