Educational facilities planners, design professionals, and the general public can now download a copy of the ANSI S12.60-2002 American National Standard Acoustical Performance Criteria, Design Requirements, and Guidelines for Schools free of charge. The standard is available on the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) website. While the ASA typically charges for these standards to help fund its development activities, industry partners (Armstrong Ceiling Systems, illbruck Architectural Products, and Trane) joined with the organization to make sure this information was available at no charge.
The standard was developed by Accredited Standards Committee S12, Noise, under American National Standards Institute (ANSI) approved operating procedures. In addition to helping school districts and building team members in designing classrooms that optimize acoustics, the standard brings the United States into agreement with the requirements of the World Health Organization as well as many countries around the world.
