Beginning the 2023-24 school year, the District school will provide drinking water in a large enough quantity to meet the drinking needs of students and staff with a lead concentration level below five parts per billion.

On or before January 1, 2024, the District school will:

1. Conduct an inventory of all drinking water outlets.
2. Develop a plan for testing each inventoried outlet (above) and will make the plan available to the public; and
3. Provide general information on the health effects of lead contamination and additional informational resources to employees and parents upon request.

A priority will be assigned to District schools which house early childhood education programs, kindergarten and all elementary schools.

Before August 1, 2024, the District school will:

1. Perform all testing for lead annually and thereafter using first draw and follow-up flush surplus of a random sampling of at least 25% of remediated drinking water outlets until all remediated sources have been tested as recommended by the EPA.
2. Make all test results and any lead remediation plans available on the school’s website.
3. Remove and replace any drinking water outlets that the EPA has determined are not lead free as provided in the Lead Contamination and Control Act except for drinking water outlets and water coolers that have been determined to be dispensing drinking water with a lead contamination level less than five parts per billion.

If testing indicates that the water source is causing the contamination and until such time that the source of the contamination has been remediated the affected school will:

1. Install a filter that reduces lead in drinking water at each point the water supply enters the building.
2. Install a filter that reduces lead in drinking water on each water outlet inventoried to ensure lead contamination are below five parts per billion.
3. Provide purified water at each water outlet inventoried.

If testing in any District school indicates that internal piping is causing the contamination, the following items will be put in place until the contamination has been remediated:

1. Install a filter at each point at which the water supply enters the building to ensure lead concentrations are below five parts per billion.
2. Provide purified water at each water outlet inventoried; or
3. Remove the outlet from service.

If a pipe, sodder, fitting or fixture is replaced as part of remediation and the replacement will be lead free, which under Federal regulation means containing less than 0.2 percent lead.

If a test result exceeds five parts per billion, the affected school will:

1. Contact parents and staff by written notification within seven (7) business days after receiving the test result. The notification will include:
   1. Test result and summary explanation of the test result.
   2. Description of any remedial steps taken; and
   3. Description of general health effects of lead contamination and community specific resources.

In such instance, the district will also provide, at affected school(s), bottled water if there is not enough drinking water from uncontaminated outlets to meet the drinking needs of the students and staff.  No District school constructed after January 4, 2014 will be required to install, maintain or replace filters.

Testing

If in the ten (10) years prior to the 2023-24 school year, a fixture tested above five parts per billion for lead such fixture does not need to be retested for lead, but remediation will begin on such fixture.

The District will annually report to the Department of Health and Human Services the results of annual testing.

A District school whose testing does not find a drinking source with a lead concentration above, the acceptable level will only be required to test every five (5) years.

For school year 2022-23, the District may elect to test samples of potable water in District facilities serving students under first grade in buildings built prior to 1996.  The purpose of such testing would be to determine the presence of and quantity of lead.  If election to test is made, the District will submit sample(s) to a department of health approved laboratory for analysis for the presence of lead.  Written sampling results will be submitted to the Department of Health within seven (7) days of receipt.

If any of the submitted samples exceed standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the District will promptly notify by written or electronic communication to the parents/guardian of all enrolled students.  Notice to parents/guardians will include the:

1. Sampling location within the building.
2. EPA’s website for information for lead in the drinking water; and
3. The specific lead level in each testing site.

If any of the samples are at or below five parts per billion, parental notification may be made by posting on the District’s website.

All drinking water outlets with test results of less than five parts per billion for lead shall be retested every five years.  However, the District may choose to retest at a more regular rate of less than five years.

Definitions

“Disadvantaged school district,” Any school district that serves students from a country in which at least twenty-five (25%) percent of the households in such county are below the federal poverty level or any school district in which more than seventy (70%) percent of students qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch. Disadvantaged school districts will receive funding priority under America Water Infrastructure Act of 2018.

“Drinking Water Outlet,” a potable water fixture that is used for drinking or food preparation.  Drinking water outlets include but are not limited to:

1. A water fountain, faucet or tap that is preparation or for cleaning, cooking, or eating utensils.
2. Ice-making and hot drink machines.
3. “First Draw,” a 250-millimeter sample immediately collected from a drinking water outlet that has been turned on after a stagnation period of at least 8 hours.
4. "Remediation,” decreasing the lead concentration in water from a drinking water outlet to less than five parts per billion using methods such as replacement of equal components or filtering when the water supply is the source of contamination.

Flushing is not considered to be remediation.