School districts in Butler County are taking seriously recent state legislation that requires them to test for lead in paint, soil and water.

All of the school districts that responded to questions Monday said they have chosen to test for lead instead of the alternative made available in the legislation, which is to hold a public hearing to explain why the district will not test for the dangerous metal.

The requirement to test for lead or hold a public hearing was included in the school code package passed by the state Legislature earlier this summer.

The push to include lead testing in the 2018-19 school code was led by state Sen. Arthur Haywood, D-4th, in Montgomery and Philadelphia counties.

“Pennsylvania has recorded a grade of F for lead in water,” Haywood said Monday. “That was one clear reason.”

The other, perhaps more cathartic reason, was a 2016 trip Haywood took to Flint, Mich.

“I saw the water bottles lined up on the street,” said Haywood. “That visit made (the dangers of lead in a water system) crystal clear to me.”

He said shortly after it was discovered that the Flint public water system was — and remains — polluted with high lead levels, it was discovered that 12 towns in Pennsylvania had similar lead levels in their water.

The state's youngest residents, Haywood said, are the most vulnerable.

“Ingesting lead causes development issues for our children,” Haywood said.

The new legislation requires districts that get a positive result for lead to create a remediation plan and send it to the state Department of Education.

Water at Summit Elementary School in the Butler School District was discovered in late 2016 to have lead levels that exceeded national standards.

Those students were moved to the vacated Broad Street School but are now back at Summit Elementary, where the problem has been corrected by disconnecting the school from the on-site wells and connecting to Pennsylvania American Water service.

The most recent testing at Summit Elementary, according to testing documents provided by the school district, showed that on July 19 the water in two classrooms, the kitchen sink and faculty sink tested well below the national lead maximum.

Other school districts in the county have water testing for lead lined up within the next week and will share the results on their various websites.

Those districts include South Butler, Seneca Valley, Moniteau, Karns City and Slippery Rock.

Wes Shipley, the Mars School District superintendent, said the water was tested in all school buildings after Butler's Summit Elementary School situation arose. Those results showed no issues with lead.

The water in the Mars schools will be tested again this school year.

David McDeavitt, the A-C Valley superintendent, said his district also tested their water after the Summit Elementary situation. No findings turned up in the water, which is provided to the district from the Foxburg Water Authority.

McDeavitt said the water was recently tested again and the district is awaiting the results.

Ian Magness, the superintendent at the Freeport School District, said the water in his district's buildings was tested one year ago and six locations tested positive for lead.

While five of the six locations showed results below the national maximum, the district remediated the lead content at all six locations.

Magness said the district will test all buildings regularly going forward.

Haywood said additional legislation is being considered in Harrisburg that would provide funding to school districts for lead testing.

Regarding the current requirements in the newly passed school code, Haywood said few of the 501 school districts across the state will elect to hold a public hearing.

“I'm confident that superintendents will choose testing instead of a public hearing,” he said.