Amy Wilder had felt lucky. After touring a number of public schools in her district earlier this year, her four-year old son got a pre-K spot at her top pick — P.S. 84 on the Upper West Side.
Then, in July, the Department of Education released detailed data on hundreds of elementary-school classrooms with lead-paint hazards after conducting inspections over the summer, prompted by an investigation by WNYC that initially found loose lead-paint chips and high lead-dust levels in four schools. It was the first time the DOE had ever made a list of test results public
“So I went through it, and I scroll down and I found my son's classroom,” Wilder said, standing in front of the school. “Yes, it’s positive. Yes, needs remediation and I was like, ‘Wow, really?’”
Wilder’s son’s classroom was one of over 1,800 found to have deteriorated lead paint across the city, and the revelation has caused alarm among many parents who will be sending them off on Thursday for the first day of school.
“I was a little surprised,” said Wilder. “Because I had seen the school and it looked very well kept.. This is not a particularly old school.”
P.S. 84 was built in 1965, five years after New York City banned the use of lead paint. However, records show the school system continued to use it until sometime around 1980, and the DOE’s lead inspections were conducted in buildings constructed before 1985.
Lead is a neurotoxin that’s especially harmful to children. At even low levels, it can cause loss of IQ, hyperactivity, aggression and other behavioral problems., and Mayor Bill de Blasio has assured parents that all classrooms with deteriorating lead paint will be remediated before students enter buildings for the first time this school year.
“I want to say I'm 100 percent confident,” said WIlder. “But I'm not. And I hope that our mayor who is obviously, you know, has other things on his mind right now other than running the city, will make this a priority. Because he's he's talking all about how he's expanded education to make universal pre-K and now 3-K available to everyone. So if you're gonna do that, you have to then make sure all the kids that you're offering this to are safe from harm from lead.”
Here’s how those inspections have worked so far: School custodians first conducted visual inspections for deteriorating paint, and, in rooms where peeling or chipping paint was found, certified inspectors were brought in to test whether the paint was lead-based. If it was, those specific areas were remediated.
An example of lead-based paint peeling from a NYC school room wall.
But many have questioned the DOE’s response, which has so far been limited to 3-K through first-grade classrooms.
“It's reactive,” said Dr. Morri Markowitz, director of the Lead Poisoning Treatment and Prevention Program at The Children’s Hospital at Montefiore. “Wait for something to deteriorate in order to determine whether it's hazardous or not. I think it's backward. I think you have to go in and determine the potential for a hazard.”
As a matter of safety, Markowitz said DOE should test for lead paint before it begins to deteriorate, and not just classrooms with the youngest students, but in all classrooms, as well as in common areas such as hallways, stairways and auditoriums — anywhere with a potential risk for exposure.
For example, when WNYC tested a school library, we found lead-dust levels at over 600 times the city’s safety standard.
“‘What's being done to protect the rest of the population that spends time in the school where lead has already been discovered in some of the classrooms, implying that it's throughout the school?” asked Markowitz.
Last week, 34 members of the City Council called on Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza to test common areas in schools before the first day of school, and Tuesday, he said the DOE will begin testing and remediating libraries and cafeterias serving children under the age of six, but he made no mention of other parts of school building or rooms serving older students.
Council Member Mark Treyger, chair of the education committee, said he’s working with the Council’s legislative team to possibly draft a bill that would give council members more oversight of the DOE’s testing protocols.
“We do have reporting power, so we could require them to report on lead found in common spaces,” said Treyger. “Anything we can do to hold them accountable.”
Markowitz also believes the DOE should sponsor a study to test students’ blood-lead levels in schools where lead-paint hazards have been found. And Treyger — who plans to hold a hearing on lead-paint hazards in schools this fall — wants to know what types of additional support and educational services will be provided for children who’ve been exposed.
The more basic question, however, is what went wrong. Under the city’s health code, the DOE had been required to inspect for lead-paint hazards annually and said it only conducted it’s latest round of testing “out of an abundance of caution” after WNYC published the results of its investigation. And yet, in the process, over 20 percent of classrooms were found to have deteriorating lead paint, and the city has since hired Ernst & Young to review the department’s inspection process.
“Those are the types of questions that will be asked on the record. You have parents, stakeholders, and quite frankly, law enforcement, everyone is paying attention to the answers that our government is providing,” said Treyger.
“There are some concerning parallels to what is developing here to what happened in the case of NYCHA,” he added, referring to the decades of the New York City Housing Authority’s denials when a child tested positive for lead exposure.. “We were told initially with NYCHA there was no problem, only to find that NYCHA lied under oath, knowing we lied. And then we learned that we had a lead crisis in NYCHA apartments.”
Parents: You are encouraged to get your child tested for lead exposure at least once a year. And as you enter your kid’s school for the first time this year, take a look around. If you see deteriorating paint or an area you’re worried about, the Department of Education now has a new, online reporting tool on its website, and it says complaints will be investigated.
