School nutrition professionals could eventually have greater resources to test their water for contamination, as newly proposed legislation aims to establish a grant program to help U.S. schools conduct lead testing.
The True LEADership Act of 2016—introduced by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and co-sponsored by 26 Senate Democrats—aims to establish a mandatory nationwide requirement for states to report elevated lead levels in children and educate teachers about lead poisoning, including how to identify the symptoms in their students, according to a release.
The bill would allocate $70 billion over 10 years toward water infrastructure improvements and lead relief programs.
“We urgently need to minimize the risks to our communities and our children. Urban, rural and suburban neighborhoods—in every community in America—all rely on safe, clean water. … We can and must immediately do more as a country to better protect our waters and our kids, and the True LEADership Act will help us do exactly that,” Sen. Cardin said in a statement.
The legislation was introduced as a number of school districts across the country—such as some in Flint, Mich., Detroit and New Jersey—are finding higher than acceptable amounts of lead in their drinking water. Districts have responded by shutting off water supplies, providing students with bottled water and working with their local health departments, as reported recently by FSD.