Lead Paint Found In More Than 900 NYC Classrooms – New York City, NY Patch
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Recent inspections discovered dangerous lead paint in hundreds of classrooms serving the city’s youngest students.
By Noah Manskar, Patch Staff
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NEW YORK — Department of Education staffers recently found lead paint in hundreds of classrooms serving the city’s youngest students, officials revealed Thursday.
The results of the recent inspections indicate that lead — which can cause problems such as brain damage, slow development and learning issues — is more widely present in city schools than previously thought.
Custodians inspected 5,408 public school classrooms used by kids younger than 6 starting in the last week of June and found broken-up paint containing lead in 938 — or about 17 percent — of them, the DOE said.
The examinations of classrooms built before 1985 came after WNYC found alarmingly high levels of lead in some schools. The Education Department pledged to fix the problematic paint by the time students return to school on Sept. 5.
“Our schools are safe, and this summer we’ve enhanced our protocols and strengthened communication with families around the steps we take to prevent lead exposure for kids under six,” DOE spokesperson Miranda Barbot said in a statement. “All work will be complete by the first day of school, and we’re going to remain vigilant throughout the year and regularly inspect, test, and immediately address any concern in our buildings.”
The data dump, which Chalkbeat first reported Wednesday night, was the first the Department of Education has ever released about the presence of lead-based paint in its schools. It came as Mayor Bill de Blasio faced a question on the presidential debate stage about lead poisoning in the city’s public housing.
The inspections, conducted at the end of the school year, found deteriorated paint containing lead in 361 Brooklyn classrooms, the most of any borough. The dangerous substance was discovered in 327 classrooms in The Bronx, 139 in Queens, 59 in Staten Island and 52 in Manhattan, the DOE’s data show.
The DOE said it would send notes to principals and parents about its work to address lead paint and refer them to more information online. But the department did not directly say whether it would suggest that parents get their kids tested for lead, which the city’s Department of Health recommends for children younger than 6.
The DOE’s most recent inspections began as WNYC reported on high levels of lead in paint samples from four public schools. One sample from a windowsill contained 1,000 times more lead than the city’s safety standard for those surfaces, according to the radio station.
The DOE says it is legally required to check for lead paint in buildings erected before 1978, but goes beyond that mandate and inspects schools built before 1985.
Custodians examine classrooms for deteriorated paint, which gets examined with X-ray fluorescence technology that detects how much lead is in the sample. The DOE said last month that it would require custodians to formally inspect classrooms and log their findings three times a year instead of just once a year.
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