Effective July 1, 2012, ORS 634.740 requires that all public and private K-12 schools and community colleges have an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Plan in place, a designated IPM Coordinator, and a list of acceptable low-impact pesticides.

The IPM Plan must give preference to the use of nonchemical pest control measures by focusing on the prevention of pest problems by working to reduce or eliminate conditions that attract pests. Pests need food, water, and shelter. Good housekeeping and sealing up access points greatly reduces pests.

A plan must include “regular monitoring and inspections to detect pests, pest damage and unsanctioned pesticide usage.” The law requires staff be educated “about sanitation, monitoring and inspection and about pest control measures.”

Any plan must exclude “the application of pesticides on a routine schedule for purely preventive purposes, other than applications of pesticides designed to attract or be consumed by pests,” and “the application of pesticides for purely aesthetic purposes.”

The School IPM Coordinator is responsible for overseeing pest prevention efforts, providing for the identification and evaluation of pest problems, and assuring that pesticide applications are proper and lawful (including pesticide selection, giving notice, posting warnings, and keeping records).

The Coordinator must complete at least six hours of training each year. The low-impact pesticides list must include pesticides that do not have the signal words “warning” or “danger” on the label, and are not classified as human carcinogen or probably/likely to be a human carcinogen under EPA guidelines.