“Managing Lead in Drinking Water at Schools and Early Childhood Education Facilities” report released

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The Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) has released a timely, commissioned report on “Managing Lead in Drinking Water at Schools and Early Childhood Education Facilities.”

As parents and communities throughout the country discover high levels of lead present in their drinking water, this report provides specific criteria and guidelines for schools and early childhood education (ECE) facilities to remediate lead levels.

Lead is recognized as the single most significant environmental health threat to America’s children. Its toxicity in relatively small doses is associated with learning disabilities, poor attention spans and lowered IQ scores. Furthermore, children of color and children living in low-income communities bear a disproportionately high burden of lead exposures and lead toxicity.

Today, of course, the corrosion of lead pipes distributing water to the citizens of Flint contaminated the city’s potable water, resulting in elevated blood lead levels in the city’s nearly 9,000 children under the age of 6.

This guide, prepared by the Horsley Witten Group, is a comprehensive source of best practices for lead sampling and analysis in schools and ECE facilities across the country. It also includes reference guidance from federal, state, local government agencies and other organizations, and case studies with examples from schools and ECE facilities that have experienced lead contamination in drinking water sources.

“The presence of lead in drinking water represents a crisis of environmental justice, falling woefully short in our basic function as a democracy to educate and keep our children safe,” WKKF President and CEO La June Montgomery Tabron said. “Yet, it also presents an opportunity for all of us to proactively engage and be accountable to each other and for each other, especially in our schools and early childhood education facilities.”

Learn more about “Managing Lead in Drinking Water at Schools and Early Childhood Education Facilities.”