Half of Milwaukee's kids aren't being screened for lead. Fewer than 20 came to a free testing clinic

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The stage was set at North Division High School for a surge of families Wednesday as city health officials held a free lead screening clinic for Milwaukee families. Instead, fewer than 20 kids came in for testing over a four-hour span.

The low turnout wasn't what the Milwaukee Health Department, Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), Children's Wisconsin and others were hoping for when they arranged for the free clinic, the second of its kind since the start of MPS' lead crisis this spring.

So far, nine MPS schools have closed at various points over the last two months after inspectors found dangerously high levels of lead paint dust.

Milwaukee Health Commissioner Mike Totoraitis told reporters Wednesday about 1,200 Milwaukee kids test positive for lead poisoning each year. However, he added just about half of the city's children are getting tested for lead, and health officials suspect that other half is largely made up of children who are at higher risk of exposure because of where they live.

Totoraitis said he was hopeful large-scale screening clinics, combined with recent headlines about high lead levels in schools, would prompt more families to seek screening for their kids.

"I think one of the best pieces that can help this conversation continue to have momentum and continue to see investments in this space is for parents who are concerned about their children's potential poisoning to get them screened," he said.

Only a few families took advantage of Wednesday's clinic. When Yolanda Lassiter brought in her two grandchildren more than two hours after the clinic started, they were just the 11th and 12th kids to enter the screening.

"I thought it would be much more crowded," Lassiter said. "Because this is a very important issue in our community at large."

Debate over testing priorities

Outside the clinic, several community groups, along with the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association (MTEA), held a rally. They called for the health department to commit to testing every MPS school for lead in water sources and soil, in addition to paint.

Health officials have said they're prioritizing visual inspections for chipped and cracked paint because they've determined lead paint dust was the culprit for the high lead levels detected this spring in MPS schools.

"I would really challenge them to explain how they know that with certainty," Kristen Payne, director of Lead-Safe Schools MKE, said. "Given that we have multiple sources of lead across different forms in our community."

Totoraitis said the health department agrees it's important to test for lead in water and soil, but he maintained the evidence pointed to lead paint being the biggest source of contamination across the state's largest school district.

"I think every potential source of lead contamination is important to examine," he said. "Based on our examination, we're prioritizing lead paint and lead dust, based on the exposures we've identified so far."

How to cover the costs

District leaders have set a timeline for how they plan to test and clean all 106 MPS schools built before 1978, when the federal government banned the use of lead paint.

However, MPS officials have yet to share an estimate of how much they think all that work will cost.

The groups at Wednesday's rally mostly blamed the Republican-controlled state Legislature, which stopped tying school funding to the rate of inflation in 2009. They called on the state government to increase funding for K-12 school districts.

The MTEA has called for the state to increase its special education reimbursement rate from 33% to 60%, arguing that would free up millions of dollars for districts to put toward their facilities, including lead testing and remediation.

Payne said the risk of child developmental problems tied to lead poisoning makes mitigation a worthwhile fiscal priority.

"When people are exposed to even low levels of lead, that impacts their ability to earn money and impacts to earn money, and then impacts the state tax revenue, the city tax revenue, etc.," she said. "So we're gonna pay for it one way or the other."

Deputy Commissioner of Environmental Health Tyler Weber told reporters he hoped the crisis at MPS would spur an increase in funding that would allow the health department and others to add staff dedicated to lead abatement.

"Can we seize the moment to build a program or a team that more routinely inspects schools?" he said. "Can we use this to seize more funding to support other nonprofits and organizations that does lead work or lead screening?"

For Lassiter, the concerns are all too real. One of the grandchildren she brought to Wednesday's clinic tested positive for high lead levels after receiving a standard finger prick test. He then received an IV blood draw for further testing. 

She was told to expect the results of that test in three days. While it will take further testing to know whether her grandson is the latest Milwaukee child to have unsafe levels of lead in his body, Lassiter said there's clearly no reason for anyone to dispute the need for Milwaukee to receive more funding for lead testing and cleaning.

"At the safety of our children, it shouldn't be a dollar amount set on that," she said.

What's next?

It's been nearly a month since MPS officials learned the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) won't be able to provide help analyzing lead testing data due to funding cuts made by the Trump administration.

Weber said the health department was instead talking to health officials in Cleveland who have experience dealing with high lead levels in schools. He added they're also planning to meet with Michigan state health officials to learn from their experience with the Flint water crisis.

In the meantime, there is regular testing happening at multiple locations across the city:

• 2461 W. Center St., clinics are held on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. for children 9 months to 10 years of age, provided by Children's Wisconsin. Contact: Katie Doss, (414) 404-0600, ext. 5
• 2561 N. 29th St., clinics held Tuesdays and Thursdays every week between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. through the end of the school year. No appointment necessary
• 1032 S. Cesar Chavez Dr., clinics held Monday-Thursday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. and on Fridays between 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Contact: Sixteenth Street Community Health Center, (414) 897-5594