Only 8% of US public schools operate their own community water systems, and thus are subject to the federal Lead and Copper Rule's regulation of water lead levels (WLLs). To date, the absence of parallel water testing data for all other schools has prevented the comparison of WLLs with schools that do not face federal regulation.

Following the Flint Water Crisis, many states passed legislation requiring schools to measure and remediate lead in school drinking water. In this study, Scott Latham and Jennifer Jennings present new evidence on the level and distribution of…