PA loosens standards for reporting lead in school drinking water

A new provision added to this year’s state budget loosened the requirements for reporting lead in school drinking water. While schools are not required to test for lead, as long as the topic is discussed at a public meeting annually, those that do test were mandated to report any finding above zero to the state. Now, schools will have to report findings above five parts per billion.

What was the issue with the initial law?

Lawmakers passed the change after several statewide associations representing school boards, principals, and other school officials complained to education leaders that the state’s prior lead testing requirements were unrealistic, according to records reviewed by Spotlight PA.

Critics say the law is flawed and schools are not held accountable for not reporting elevated results to the state. Furthermore, the Pennsylvania Department of Education also failed to accurately implement the law until recently.

Law not properly enforced

According to emails reviewed by Spotlight PA, education officials initially provided guidance to school districts to report lead levels exceeding 15 parts per billion, rather than anything over zero.

It wasn’t until this year that officials revised the guidance, according to a copy of an email viewed by Spotlight PA. The agency told districts in May that when “a school tests for lead in drinking water and the result is in excess of 0 parts per billion,” the school must take the actions required by the law, including reporting the result for public posting.

The May directive prompted immediate pushback from school organizations and advocates and precipitated lawmakers’ decision to loosen reporting requirements.

Issues with testing and reporting requirements

Still, the new inventory reports do not explicitly require schools to report any information about lead. Lawmakers also didn’t address many of the other flaws critics have flagged about the lead testing law.

The original 2018 law enabled schools to forgo lead testing if they held a public meeting on the matter. The issue was public meetings aren’t always well publicized, and schools were not required to report any information about these meetings to the state, so it’s impossible to tell whether districts actually comply with this provision.

There’s also no way to know if schools that do test and find lead in their water actually report to the state as required.

Education department officials, responding to questions from Spotlight PA, wrote that the agency is not granted the authority to enforce remediation plans, but that the posting of data “ensures public notice.”