In 2021, when Dade County Schools Superintendent Josh Ingle was in his first year on the job, his facilities manager came to him with an idea that seemed like a no-brainer: a program that would use federal funds to test his schools’ water fixtures for lead.

Previously, the district had paid a third-party business to test for lead, but Ingle decided to enroll all four of his district’s schools into the Clean Water for Georgia Kids program, which launched in 2021 and is available for free to schools and child care centers. The district received training videos and equipment on testing all of its sinks and water fountains.

“I mean, it’s a free opportunity to have your water tested, you know, and we deal with kids each and every day,” Ingle said. “My kids go to Dade County Schools. As a parent, I would want to know.”

Doctors say no amount of lead exposure is safe, and children are especially vulnerable to lead poisoning, as even small amounts can accumulate in the body and cause problems with brain development, leading to decreased intelligence and behavior problems.

Lead in water is not detectable by taste or smell, and unlike other contaminants, it should be tested for at the tap rather than the water source or treatment plant. That’s because lead can enter the water through corroding pipes once it has already been treated.

When the results came back for Dade County, it was mostly good news. Most of the drinking fountains had no detectable lead, though some had slightly elevated levels. A few kitchen sinks and faucets in employee break rooms had higher levels, with one Davis Elementary kitchen hand-washing sink standing out at 13.47 parts per billion. Results for all participating schools and child care centers are available .

None of Dade County’s samples reached the 15 parts per billion threshold that requires immediate action.

Statewide, 6.1% of fixtures tested were above 15 parts per billion, while 18% met the best possible result of less than .1 parts per billion. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that lead in water not exceed 1 part per billion, and 59.5% of fixtures in Georgia schools and daycares meet this goal.

Ingle said he followed recommendations for fixtures with higher levels, which include installing new filters and flushing faucets each morning, which can remove any lead that may have built up overnight.

His only gripe with the program is that the district is on the hook for about $600 for optional retesting of the fixtures with elevated levels, which he says is not a big deal in the long run. The federal grant funds do not cover retesting for samples with less than 15 parts per billion.

“We didn’t realize that we were going to have to pay for this retesting, which, I don’t care, I guess we assumed it would be free, but because we did not have any over that 15 parts per billion, then we had to pay, which is very minimal in the grand scheme of things,” Ingle said.

Participation

Ingle said he’s glad to have a handle on the issue and to be able to show parents that the schools are taking lead safety seriously, but Dade County is in the minority.

Of the more than 2,200 Georgia public schools, only 91 have signed up since August of 2021. Only 118 of approximately 3,100 child care centers and 1,500 family child care learning homes have signed up.

Those participation rates are especially low when compared to North Carolina, where the program that became the model for Georgia’s launched in 2020. In that state, the program is required for daycare facilities, and nearly all of the state’s approximately 4,500 centers have signed up. In North Carolina, about 75% of fixtures returned less than 1 part per billion, and 2.3% were greater than 15 parts per billion.

Georgia’s Department of Early Care and Learning, or DECAL, set a goal of 500 facilities in the testing program’s first year.

“We had hoped for more, but it is on a voluntary basis,” said chief DECAL spokesman Reg Griffin. “We are continuing our outreach efforts to encourage programs to enroll.”

“We have continued our outreach efforts by emailing our programs and discussing the Lead Project in our Child Care Services newsletter sent to more than 4,400 licensed programs across the state,” he added. “We have also had a strong social media push and featured on our weekly podcast, DECAL Download.”

RTI Laboratories, the group partnering with the government to test the water samples, is also working to get the word out, says Jennifer Hoponick Redmon, an environmental health scientist and director of environmental health and water quality at RTI.

“We want to show facilities that this is something that can be done pretty easily at the individual facility level, and there’s really no better time than now to take advantage of this,” she said. “So we would love to hear from facilities that are on the fence about whether or not to sign up to see if there’s any additional support we can help to provide them to complete the testing. We are amenable to individual concerns and needs.”

Schools and daycare centers can enroll year-round at .

Some providers may incorrectly believe that they don’t need to test because their facility is newly built or because their water provider tests, she said.

Another concern may be that facilities will be stuck with a public record of elevated lead levels but no money to mitigate it. Redmon said some facilities may hesitate “because they want to make sure that they’re not joining something that’s voluntary, that they don’t need to do, that’s translating into more headaches for each facility.”

But she said most recommended fixes are free or low-cost, such as installing filters or flushing faucets every morning, and facilities could access funds for bigger fixes from the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed in 2021, she added.

On Monday, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Assistant Administrator for Water Radhika Fox announced $58 million in grant funding from the bill to pay for activities that remove sources of lead in drinking water.

“And what we’ve really found in North Carolina is that by providing information about participation and participating in the program and things being available online, that transparency has removed a lot of what would otherwise be perceived as hiding problems that are found at a school,” Redmon added.

Fixes

A February report from Environment America gave Georgia, along with most other states, for protecting drinking water in schools. The highest grade, a B+, went to Washington D.C.

The researchers note that Georgia does participate in Clean Water for Georgia Kids, but finds that only a small portion of programs take part, and adds that the state has no laws or regulations to address lead in school drinking water.

Last year, Gov. Brian Kemp signed aimed at protecting kids from lead by lowering the threshold of lead in a child’s blood that would trigger state action, including testing and required fixes.

That’s a good measure, but even better would be to prevent kids from getting lead poisoning, Redmon said.

“Ideally, it’s best to stop exposure before it starts,” she said. “Blood lead testing is a reactive way to identify children that have already gotten lead exposure, and our goal is to stop that at the source so that there is less of a need to identify children that have blood lead poisoning and then the need to identify where that source is coming from.”

Schools that do not participate may be testing on their own or hiring out, Ingle said, but the Legislature requiring facilities to test could boost participation in the free program.

“Well, the gray area is, it’s not a requirement. It’s optional,” he said. “And some districts may not know that much about it. I know about it because our facilities director did a great job of pushing out the communications.”

“If the legislature pushed this, made it mandatory, obviously, it would definitely increase participation,” he added.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on and .

The House passed President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan Friday morning by a 220 to 213 vote. One Democrat, Jared Golden of Maine, voted against it.

The $1.75 trillion package — which Democrats say creates a vital social safety net for American families but Republicans call a reckless spending spree during a period of inflation — now heads to the Senate, where its future remains uncertain. The legislation would fund universal pre-K, child care and K-12 educator preparation programs over a 10-year period.

“The impact of this proposal on educational equity, excellence and opportunity â€” from cradle to college and career — will be nothing short of transformative,” U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in a statement.

On Thursday, the Congressional Budget Office released its  of the bill, showing the programs would increase the deficit by $367 billion over the 10-year period, a figure that doesn’t include additional revenue from tax enforcement. 

The House is expected to vote next week on President Joe Biden’s $1.75 trillion social spending plan, but its future in the Senate remains uncertain with some progressives wanting to add more programs to the package and two budget-minded Democrats likely to oppose those efforts.

For now, however, Democrats are celebrating the passage of half of Biden’s legislative agenda — the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that includes funds to expand broadband access, replace diesel school buses and rid schools of lead pipes.

Some of those efforts are well-timed. Just last week, a released from the National Association of State Boards of Education showed that while 45 states have voluntary or mandatory lead testing programs for schools, only 15 provide any financial support for mitigation.

“The influx of money would help bolster state and local efforts for lead testing in schools and provide more opportunities for states to engage in the work,” said Renee Rybak Lang, spokeswoman for the association.

States, she said, will need “clear guidance” on how schools and districts can apply for the funds — $15 billion for replacing lead pipes and $23.5 billion for water treatment projects, fixing pipes and other work to provide clean drinking water.

Families and educators, however, have been more invested in whether the social spending plan — which includes funds for universal pre-K, child care, tax credits and educator preparation programs — makes it to Biden’s desk. For three months, progressive Democrats in the House delayed a vote on the infrastructure bill, arguing they wanted to pass both parts of Biden’s agenda at the same time. But it didn’t work out that way. While they passed the infrastructure bill Friday night, and Biden said he will , the House was only able to pass a rule setting up a future vote for the so-called “Build Back Better” plan. Moderates aren’t ready to sign off on it until they can ensure cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office square with what the president has told them about its impact on the deficit.

To advance the bill, Democrats are using a process known as reconciliation, which requires only a simple majority to pass. But some observers suggest it could be well into the holiday season before a vote is scheduled in the Senate. And if changes are made, it would have to go back to the House for approval.

“I do have faith that when we get it out of the House, it will pass in the Senate,” said Julie Kashen, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank. “What’s driving me right now is a lot of hope and the knowledge that there are tons of constituents in West Virginia and Arizona who will benefit from what’s in there.”

Those are the home states of Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, the two fiscally conservative Democrats who drove the cost of the package down from its original $3.5 trillion price tag. 

To reach that deal, the White House agreed to extend a higher child tax credit for one year instead of four, eliminated the president’s plan for free community college and took out over $80 billion for school construction. Nonetheless, Manchin, of West Virginia, has said he still for the $1.75 trillion plan, regardless of what the Congressional Budget Office concludes.

‘Not the first time’

Losing funds for building and renovating schools has been the biggest disappointment for K-12 leaders, who say it’s not just lead pipes but also mold, asbestos, leaky roofs, and inadequate heating and air-conditioning systems that threaten the health and safety of students. 

“Members of Congress cannot keep punting on funding the second largest infrastructure sector in the country and claim they want global competitiveness, high-quality educators and equitable academic outcomes for students of color,” AASA, the School Superintendents Association, said in a strongly worded statement when the $1.75 trillion agreement was announced. 

The association is asking the U.S. Department of Education to give districts more time to spend relief funds from the American Rescue Plan, which provided $122 billion for K-12, on facility needs. According to the organization’s September , a quarter of respondents said the 2024 deadline to spend the money is an obstacle because contractors are hesitant to work under that timeline as long as supply chain disruption is driving up costs and making it hard to get materials.

A spokesman for AASA said the organization has not received a response. But in a statement, the department emphasized the American Rescue Plan’s “historic and unprecedented investment in education” and said it would “continue to work with state and local education communities” to provide support, but did not say whether it would extend the deadline.

Nation ‘not partisan’ on pre-K 

While public schools won’t see more federal funds for construction anytime soon, states would potentially have up to $50 billion over the next three years for in the child care sector — including expanding and renovating facilities. Child care centers are among the settings that would accommodate new universal pre-K classrooms.

The combined $400 billion for child care and pre-K in the social spending bill would lower or eliminate the cost of care and preschool for many families. But experts say it’s still hard to predict if states that have never offered public pre-K — such as Idaho, New Hampshire, South Dakota and Wyoming — would participate.

“They don’t think they need it,” Steve Barnett, senior co-director of the National Institute for Early Education Research, said about those states. While the bill would allow locally funded programs to participate, Barnett added that governors would “have to decide whether they would rather be in control or turn it down and have localities go their own way.”

When pressed recently on whether he supports universal pre-K, Wyoming Republican said he thinks Biden’s policies aren’t helping people. 

But Kashen of the Century Foundation noted that many Republican governors were early supporters of state-funded pre-K. While the bill in Washington is partisan, she said, “the nation is not partisan on this issue.”