A new report by California Watch found that hundreds of California’s public schools do not meet the legal construction codes for earthquake safety.
In the On Shaky Ground multimedia series, investigative reporter Corey Johnson and the California Watch team lay out systematic failures in the construction and inspection of public schools. The three-part series shows that lax oversight of school construction, poor judgment in hiring building inspectors and inability for schools to access renovation funds have all contributed to the tens of thousands of public schools that fail to comply with the Field Act, which laid out building safety codes after 70 schools collapsed in a 1933 earthquake.
An interactive map breaks down school building safety by county and city — displaying proximity to fault lines and landslide zones.