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Milwaukee schoolchildren to be tested for lead poisoning in contamination response next step
Milwaukee health and school officials are launching a new program to screen children in schools for lead poisoning. Pictured is a lead screening clinic in the cafeteria of Milwaukee's North Division High School in May 2025. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
The Milwaukee Health Department and the Milwaukee Public Schools will spend the next year testing district schoolchildren for lead contamination.
On Tuesday, officials from the health department, the school district, City Hall and the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention met to review the ongoing program to address lead contamination in the school district.
The CDC has granted the health department $400,000 to expand its school lead-screening program at MPS. The grant will cover screening for up to 8,000 MPS students, the health department reported.
The school district is contracting with NOVIR to carry out screening clinics on the premises of district schools. Funds will also go to the Coalition on Lead Emergency (COLE) to inform school district families about the screening program.
“By bringing screening directly into schools, we’re making it easier for families to access testing and ensuring we stay focused on prevention, transparency, and long-term safety,” Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said in a health department press release.
Members of the CDC’s lead poisoning and prevention team are reviewing the work done in the last year by the city, the health department and the school district, as well as their plans for screening children in the coming year.
After children at two MPS schools were found to have elevated levels of lead in their blood, the health department inspected the schools and found high levels of lead dust in the buildings. The schools were temporarily closed, and more testing found additional schools with contamination.
Early in the unfolding crisis, promised assistance from the CDC’s lead-prevention team was abruptly canceled, among numerous reversals that the Trump administration made in federal programs and funding. The CDC team was reinstated several weeks later and resumed working with the state and local health departments.
A city health department screening program found scores more children with elevated blood levels. According to the health department, the district’s subsequent cleanup program stabilized lead paint in 99 elementary schools by the end of 2025.
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