Why thousands of California schools could face stringent tests for lead in drinking water

California lawmakers overwhelmingly backed legislation that requires stringent lead testing of all taps used for drinking water at about 7,500 K-12 schools that receive federal funding to serve low-income children.

Although Assembly Bill 249 says that lead levels up to 5 parts per billion will be allowed, it makes clear that the goal should be zero parts per billion. The measure now must get Gov. Gavin Newsom’s approval to become law.

Assemblymember Chris Holden, the Pasadena Democrat who authored the bill, secured $25 million to pay for testing and remediation. The measure passed 35-2 in the Senate and 68-12 in the Assembly.

“Lead consumption among youth and disenfranchised communities occurs at a higher rate,” Holden said. “Assisting schools with the resources and appropriate standards to ensure the water fountains our children drink from are safe will help us protect our schools, students, and communities.”

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said there’s no safe level of lead that children can consume, said Susan Little, the senior advocate for California government affairs at the Environmental Working Group, and the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended that public water systems try to get lead levels below 1 part per billion.

Children absorb lead as readily as they do calcium, Little has said, and when children don’t get a balanced diet, they will absorb it faster. Lead does lasting damage to children’s brain function and central nervous system, causing intellectual disabilities, behavioral disorders, coma, convulsions and even death.

Holden secured $25 million to pay for testing and remediation, but the Association of California School Administrators remained concerned about the costs, saying that “one medium-sized school district’s initial estimate to adhere to the proposed requirements under AB 249 and test 16 school sites, with a minimum of 300 fixtures in faucets and sinks, was $1.8 million.”

The Environmental Working Group and the child advocacy organization Children Now co-sponsored the bill, pointing out that tests conducted at California’s licensed child care centers had revealed that one in four, nearly 1,700 facilities — had one or more faucets exceeding allowable limits. Holden authored the bill requiring those tests as well.

“We thank Assemblymember Holden for shepherding AB 249 through the legislature to protect students from lead in drinking water,” said Ted Lempert, president of Children Now, “and we urge the governor to sign the bill to ensure that $25 million already set aside in the budget is used to give schools the resources they need to keep kids and educators safe.”

California K-12 schools sampled the drinking water from a few faucets on each campus six years ago and found that samples from 18% of the campuses contained lead levels above 5 parts per billion. At that time, schools were only required to remediate only lead levels above 15 parts per billion, but experts have said this was not protective of children’s health.

AB 249 does not require retesting of any potable water faucets that already showed lead levels below 5 parts per billion. Local water systems will do the testing and must complete it by Jan. 1, 2027.

School districts and school sites must post all test results on a publicly accessible internet website, and if they don’t have one, they must provide the results upon request. The schools must also notify parents if a faucet tested above levels of 5 parts per billion and include information from the State Water Board on the effect these levels can have.

Schools may be able to fix problem outlets on the same day, Little said, but if they aren’t, they must shut down the outlet and provide another water source if regulations require it.

If parents are worried that their children have suffered high levels of lead exposure, Little said, they can ask their pediatrician to screen for it. Or, if they’re nervous about whether their school’s faucets have high levels of lead, she said, they can pack a water bottle in their child’s book bag.