Educational occupancy above grade 12 and risk category inconsistency in IBC

[TidePoolJunkie]

Hi all,

I have come across an interesting inconsistency in the IBC (2021) occupancy vs risk category classifications.

1) IBC Sec. 305 limits Group E (Educational) occupancy "through the 12th grade"--meaning Group E applies to buildings with educational purposes for people in grade 12 and below.

2) IBC Tbl 1604.5 (Risk Category Table) then assigns Risk Category III for
A) "Buildings and other structures containing Group E or Group I-4 occupancies or combination thereof, with an occupant load greater than 250."
and
B) "Buildings and other structures containing educational occupancies for students above the 12th grade with an occupant load greater than 500."

Original comment in this post:

The inconsistency in my interpretation of these two clauses is that Group E can only be applied to people at grade 12 and below, but then the risk category table refers to a structure with an educational occupancy for students above grade 12.
My project has an occupancy load of 380 for students above grade 12, so regardless of the above interpretation, I would say this falls into Risk Category II.

UPDATE: I think clause 2A in the Risk Cat table makes this clear, that Group E with OL>250 falls into III. I think that the term "educational occupancies" in clause 2B above does not necessarily mean Group E.


Looking forward to hear others' experiences and interpretation on this matter.