Making a silent killer visible: Catalysing policy action to protect school students’ health and wellbeing from extreme heat amidst a changing climate in Latin America

Extreme heat is a silent and growing threat to students' cognitive function, health, wellbeing, and future potential across Latin America, yet this impact remains invisible and poorly unaddressed in public policy. This project aims to make these health effects visible to catalyse urgent and evidence-based policy action for adaptation in the health and education sectors across Peru, Chile, and Colombia. As a transdisciplinary team, we propose five work packages (WPs): WP1 will map current policy landscapes across countries to identify critical policy gaps and opportunities. WP2.1 will quantify current and future heat exposure in schools nationwide. WP2.2 will generate exposure-response curves by longitudinally measuring ambient heat/humidity versus student cognitive performance (using reaction time via PVT) in a 10-month school cohorts. WP3 will understand lived experiences in schools under extreme heat through phenomenological research with students and teachers. This evidence generation packages will directly inform the generation of targeted communication strategies via diverse channels (WP4) and the co-development of actionable policy outputs –including policy recommendations for HNAPs, heat-health alert thresholds, and practical school guidelines– created with policymakers (including MoH Peru and local authorities), communication experts, civil society organisations, and school communities in each country (WP5).