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Home Building the Capacity of Drinking Water Systems WIIN Grant: Voluntary School and Child Care Lead Testing and Reduction Grant Program NewsJune 13, 2025 - The EPA announces a total of $26 million in funding for states and territories through the EPA Voluntary School and Child Care Lead Testing and Reduction Grant Program to address lead in drinking water at schools and child care facilities. Find the press release here. Also, check out the new factsheet, By the Numbers – Reducing Lead Exposure to Children in Drinking Water.EPA Announces Funding for States to Reduce Lead in Drinking Water at Schools and Child Care FacilitiesOn June 13, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is announcing a total of $26 million in funding for states and territories to address lead in drinking water at schools and child care facilities. Since 2018, EPA has provided over $200 million to help reduce exposure to lead in drinking water where children learn and play. “Lead is a neurotoxin that can negatively impact American children. With $26 million in funding this year, more schools will be able to identify sources of lead in their water and take action so that our nation’s children can focus on learning, playing, and developing skills that will maximize their potential and make our nation stronger,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. EPA will allocate grant funding to states and territories through the Voluntary School and Child Care Lead Testing and Reduction Grant Program. Total allotment amounts for each of the 50 states, DC, and four territories can be found below. Tribal allotments for this program will be released separately. The EPA is committed to protecting children and communities across America from lead in drinking water. In addition to this grant program, EPA’s Training, Testing, and Taking Action program (3Ts) provides information and recommendations to help states and local authorities build voluntary programs to reduce lead in drinking water. Since 2019, this effort has helped over 20,000 child care facilities and nearly 13,000 schools have their water tested for lead with over 1,300 child care facilities and 2,500 schools completing remediation work. With the help of this grant, Texas has sampled approximately 97% of the approximately 1,552 school and child care facilities they planned to test. This success is thanks to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s free program to conduct voluntary sampling and analysis for lead in drinking water. In Colorado, their Test and Fix Water for Kids program has protected approximately 600,000 children from lead exposure in drinking water. New Hampshire leads the country with 360 schools with replaced drinking water apparatus. Remediation actions were taken on an additional 80 child care facilities.On this page:Background Eligible ApplicantsAvailable FundingEligible ProjectsTimelineHow to ApplyTraining and ResourcesFrequently Asked QuestionsGrant Program DataHistorical FundingBuild America, Buy America (BABA) ActContact Information BackgroundThe Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act established the Lead Testing in School and Child Care Program Drinking Water grant in 2016 to award funding to states, territories, and tribes to assist local and tribal educational agencies in voluntary testing for lead contamination in drinking water at schools and child care facilities.The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, enacted in November 2021, amended the grant program to the Voluntary School and Child Care Lead Testing and Reduction Grant Program and allowed grant funding for lead remediation in addition to testing.Grants will be awarded non‐competitively to states, territories, and tribes. For the purposes of this grant program, the term “state” is used to describe the fifty states, District of Columbia, and the territories, including: Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The grantee must utilize EPA’s 3Ts for Reducing Lead in Drinking Water in Schools and Child Care Facilities guidance when implementing the program to test and remediate for lead in drinking water in schools and child care facilities. Grantees, alternatively, may use their own applicable existing state programs or regulations that are no less stringent in the following basic elements:Communication - should be integrated throughout the development and implementation of the lead testing in drinking water in school and child care program. Communication should establish key partnerships to support the program as well as keeping the public informed.Training - school officials to raise awareness of the potential occurrences, causes and health effects of lead in drinking water. Utilize established partnerships to develop program plans and to assign responsibilities that provide the framework for an effective program.Testing - drinking water in schools and child care facilities to identify potent