Did your Illinois public school find lead in its water? Look up results here

A 2017 Illinois law required elementary schools to test each of their drinking water sources for lead and submit the results to the state by the end of 2018. The law applied only to schools serving kids younger than 6th grade and located in buildings constructed before January 2000, though some districts tested all of their school buildings. Fixtures tested include drinking fountains and sinks in kitchens, bathrooms and classrooms. The Tribune obtained the test results through records requests to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

If a district found a lead level above 5 parts per billion at any fixture, the law required officials to notify parents but didn’t mandate that schools work to reduce lead. To find out what public schools did after finding high lead levels, the Tribune spoke with officials, sent surveys or filed records requests to those districts. The state data for the most part does not include results of voluntary retesting.

[ Toxic traces: Read the investigation on lead in water at Illinois schools ]

Below, you can search two separate datasets created by the Tribune: one for public schools outside of Chicago, based on data submitted to the state and the Tribune’s reporting, and one for the Chicago Public Schools’ own comprehensive testing program, which includes water samples taken over a longer time period.

For public schools outside Chicago, type in a school or district name in the box.

For public schools in Chicago, scroll down to the next lookup.

Next is the lookup for Chicago Public Schools, which began a periodic water testing program in 2016, before the state law was enacted. Testing is still ongoing. The Tribune obtained data from CPS that includes any available samples drawn between May 2016 and August 2022. The district seeks to mitigate any fixture found to have water lead levels at or above 5 parts per billion, documents show. That’s also the level requiring parental notification under state law. Mitigation can include replacing faucet heads, water lines and drinking fountain heads.

Elsewhere in Illinois, test results generally include two samples from each source: the first draw and a second sample after a 30-second flush. Chicago’s program requires drawing five samples from each fixture. Some schools’ water was sampled on multiple dates, and the district attempts to test a quarter of its schools each year. The results include samples collected after mitigation efforts.

For public schools in Chicago, type in a school name in the box.

For public schools outside Chicago, scroll up.

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