The Environment Ohio Research & Policy Center's latest "Get The Lead Out" report shows that Ohio still has a lot of homework to do to ensure safe drinking water at school.

The group gave the state a "F" grade for its policies aimed at preventing lead contamination in schools' drinking water.

"Our kids need safe drinking water when they go to school to learn and play each day," said John Rumpler, clean water director at Environment Ohio Research & Policy Center and a co-author of the report. "Our state won't make the honor roll until schools are preventing lead contamination at every tap."

According to the report, 41 percent of the 443 Ohio public schools tested between 2016 and 2018 found high levels of lead at one or more taps.

The group said the problem is almost certainly more widespread, as these test results did not include lower levels of contamination, and most schools are likely to have sufficient lead in their fixtures and plumbing for contamination to occur.

Moreover, as lead concentrations in water are highly variable, even proper sampling can miss lead contamination or fail to capture its full extent.

Lead is highly toxic and especially damaging to kids, impairing how they learn, grow, and behave. There is no safe level of lead for our children. Most schools and pre-schools still have fountains or faucets that contain lead, and wherever there is lead, there is a risk of water contamination

While several other states have at least adopted incremental safeguards for school water, Ohio still has no state laws or regulatory requirements to address lead in schools' drinking water.

The group's report strongly recommends filters on all taps used for cooking and drinking and replacing all fountains with filtered water stations, which eliminates a common source of lead (fountains replaced) and also captures lead coming from plumbing or pipes.

Such measures would only cost a small fraction of the federal funding Ohio school districts are already receiving under the American Recovery Plan Act.

The group also has a toolkit, which provides families, teachers, and school officials with facts on lead and paths of action to ensure safe drinking water at their children's school.