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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2025 - 2026
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | December 2, 2024 12:32 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Devlin J. Robinson and Sen. John I. Kane, Sen. Art Haywood |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Lead-Free School Drinking Water |
| In the near future, we plan to reintroduce legislation to address the serious concern of lead-contaminated drinking water in Pennsylvania’s schools. Last session, this bipartisan effort – SB 986 – garnered 20 Senate cosponsors from both sides of the aisle, as well as the support of over a dozen organizations. Previous cosponsors included Senators Robinson, Kane, Haywood, Dillon, Tartaglione, Culver, Santarsiero, Comitta, Boscola, Kearney, Costa, Schwank, Brewster, Pennycuick, Baker, Bartolotta, Langerholc, Laughlin, Farry, and Miller. Lead exposure at any level is unsafe for children. Lead poisoning has well-documented adverse effects on children, such as brain and nervous system damage, physical growth delays, learning and behavior problems, and speech and hearing impairment. These factors can lead to lower IQ and even a higher risk of criminal behavior. Pennsylvania schools are recommended to test for lead, but the law does not mandate them to do so. Act 39 of 2018 encouraged schools to test for lead, providing a report to the Pennsylvania Department of Education if findings were dangerous. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s 2022 Childhood Lead Surveillance Annual Report, nearly 9,000 Pennsylvania children tested positive, and were confirmed to have elevated lead blood levels. While Act 39 served as a positive first step, advocates and experts have made clear that the law must be expanded to properly protect children from the dangers of lead exposure. A 2024 report from PennEnvironment identified areas of Pennsylvania state law that allow some districts’ school drinking water to go untested and limits the information parents and teachers receive about possible risks of lead contamination. The grave dangers of lead poisoning are entirely preventable. We can make Pennsylvania a national leader in the fight against lead in school drinking water. Our proposed legislation requires school districts to replace old, outdated drinking fountains with lead-filtering hydration stations by 2028. The legislation also includes funding mechanisms to help school districts achieve this very important – and attainable – goal. We continue to work closely with stakeholders to explore how we can most effectively and responsibly implement this necessary legislation to provide clean, safe water for our students in rural, suburban, and urban schools across Pennsylvania. The demand for clean, safe drinking water in our schools has been made loud and clear, particularly by the wide variety of stakeholders from across the Commonwealth who supported last session’s SB 986. It’s time that the General Assembly respond to this demand for change and act to remove lead from our school drinking water. Please join us in ensuring our children and educators have clean, safe water to drink at school by co-sponsoring this important legislation. |
Memo Updated: December 2, 2024 12:33 PM