New toolkit on lead in school’s drinking water

Resource for parents highlights funding in the infrastructure bill

CALPIRG Education Fund

Sacramento – With the bipartisan infrastructure bill now signed into law, CALPIRG Education Fund (CALPIRG’s research partner) and Environment California Research & Policy Center (Environment California’s research partner) released a new toolkit for parents and community leaders on Tuesday on how to get the lead out of schools’ drinking water. The infrastructure bill includes $200 million for schools to conduct lead reduction efforts.

“Parents know their kids need safe drinking water at school, where they go to learn and play each day,” said CALPIRG Director Jenn Engstrom. “But what they might not realize is that new funding is available to school districts to stop lead from contaminating water at school.”

Lead is a major threat to children’s health, and it is contaminating drinking water at schools across the country. Schools can start getting the lead out of their water by replacing fountains with water bottle stations that have filters certified to remove lead. Installing these filtered hydration stations would only cost a fraction of the nearly $110 billion in federal stimulus that school districts are receiving. 

In addition to highlighting these new federal funding sources, the toolkit includes facts and resources about lead contamination, a short educational video, and sample call-to-action materials. 

“Ensuring safe drinking water at school is not always an easy homework assignment,” said Environment California Director Laura Deehan. “Our toolkit will help parents work with their school officials to get the lead out.”