EPA's $26 Million School Lead Grant: Vermont Gets More Than Virginia, and Schools Can't Apply Directly

Vermont, a state of about 650,000 people, will receive $654,000 from EPA's newest round of school lead funding. Virginia, with more than 8 million residents, will receive $449,000. Colorado gets $358,000 and Maryland $330,000. On a per-resident basis, Vermont's share is roughly fifteen times California's.

Those figures come from the allotment memo EPA's Office of Water sent to its ten regional water directors on October 29, 2026. That memo set the FY2026 total for the Reducing Lead Where Children Learn Grant Program at $26,197,000. The same day, Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the money as a Children's Health Month "MAHA win." The headline number is modest next to the multibillion-dollar lead service line programs. But this is the one federal stream aimed specifically at the taps, fountains and plumbing inside schools and child care centers, and how it reaches a building isn't obvious from the press release.

A Formula Grant Schools Cannot Apply For

The most important fact for a school business manager or child care director is this: you are not an eligible applicant. The memo says eligibility "to apply for and receive funding under this grant program is limited to the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories." Grants are awarded non-competitively. Every state, D.C., Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands already holds an award. A separate memo covering Tribal consortia is still to come.

So the money reaches buildings through state programs. In some states that means free sampling run by the state drinking water program or a contracted lab. In others it means subgrants for remediation. In a few it means a health or education department running the entire effort. The program page tells applicants to check with their regional EPA contact for deadlines because each state's workplan sets its own design.

The funding comes with a clock. Under the memo, the FY2026 allotment "is available to states until the end of the following fiscal year," meaning September 30, 2027. Funds "not awarded by the end of the following fiscal year will be redistributed to eligible states using the allotment formula." EPA says the provision is "intended to encourage states to apply for their allotment in a timely manner." States first submit a draft workplan to their EPA Region, then a final package through Grants.gov. Once awarded, funds must be obligated within two years of the project start, and project periods may run up to four years.

Where the $26.2 Million Goes

The largest allotments:

At the bottom, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands each get $39,000. Delaware gets $80,000, North Dakota $99,000, Alaska $101,000 and Wyoming $61,000.

EPA describes the formula only as including "factors such as population," and the distribution shows population is not the only factor. Massachusetts, with about 7 million people, gets more than Florida, with more than 23 million. Illinois gets about 12 cents per resident and Florida under 5 cents. Maine ($312,000) and Rhode Island ($272,000) each outdraw Maryland. Vermont is the clearest outlier. In 2019 it passed one of the country's most aggressive mandates, Act 66, which requires lead testing at every school and child care facility. Neither the memo nor the program page publishes the formula weights, so the reason for any one state's share isn't stated. If you are building a budget around your state's program, use the allotment table, not a per-capita estimate.

Testing Money That Now Pays for Plumbing

The program began in 2016 under the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act as a testing-only grant. The statutory authority is Section 1464(d) of the Safe Drinking Water Act, as amended by WIIN Section 2107. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act changed it in November 2021, renaming it and allowing spending on remediation. The memo's examples are "plumbing replacement, lead reduction certified point-of-use filters."

The cumulative numbers explain why remediation now matters most. EPA says more than $300 million has gone through the program since 2018. That money helped "nearly 33,000 child care facilities and more than 18,000 schools test their water for lead." It advanced work on "lead pipes or fixtures at over 2,400 child care facilities and 4,200 schools." Many buildings have test results. Far fewer have had their fixtures replaced. For a district holding results above its state's action level, this grant is now one of the few federal sources that will pay for a new bottle-filling station or a certified filter on a classroom sink.

All of this spending must follow EPA's 3Ts guidance (Training, Testing, and Taking Action) or a state program "no less stringent." The four required elements are communication, training, testing and taking action. Build America, Buy America requirements also apply. That matters when buying fixtures and filters, so grantees need domestic-content documentation or a waiver before ordering hardware.

The Lead and Copper Rule Connection Districts Should Watch

One line in the memo matters for the next two years. The IIJA amendments "provide new eligibilities for compliance monitoring, such as required under the Lead and Copper Rule." EPA adds that it "will provide additional guidance for states regarding the expanded monitoring activities in FY 2027."

The revised Lead and Copper Rule now requires community water systems to sample a share of elementary schools and child care facilities in their service areas each year. Those are the same buildings this grant has funded for a decade. If EPA's FY2027 guidance lets states use the grant to cover that sampling, some of the money will shift from voluntary testing toward regulatory compliance. Schools in states that make that choice may find the sampling is paid for while remediation dollars get tighter.

How Schools and Child Care Centers Should Use This Round

Because the money moves through state agencies, the practical work comes down to a few steps:

1. Find your state's program owner. Depending on the state, it may be the drinking water program, the health department or the education department. EPA's regional WIIN contacts can tell you who runs it, and questions can go to WIINDrinkingWaterGrants@epa.gov.
2. Ask whether your state funds remediation, not just testing. States design their own workplans. Some still use most of their allotment on sampling. A district with existing exceedance data has a strong case for remediation dollars.
3. Get your data in order. States that subgrant remediation money will rank buildings by evidence: sampling results, fixture inventories, the ages of the youngest children served, and whether interim measures like taking taps out of service are already in place.
4. Get child care into the conversation early. The program has reached more child care facilities than schools, and licensed providers often lack the facilities staff that districts have. Networks and resource-and-referral agencies can apply to their state program on behalf of groups of centers.
5. Plan around BABA. Price compliant fixtures and filters before you write a budget.

States have until September 2027 to claim this money before it is redistributed. That gives early, well-documented requests the best chance. If you are preparing a remediation request or a related state or foundation proposal on children's environmental health, Granted can help you turn your sampling data into a fundable plan.