Water Testing

A Decade of Water Safety: Lead Testing in Jeffco Schools (2016–2026)

Jeffco Public Schools has maintained a rigorous lead-in-water monitoring program for ten years, evolving alongside state and federal guidelines to ensure the highest water quality for our students and staff.

Phase 1: The Proactive Era (2016–2022)

Following national concerns regarding aging infrastructure, Jeffco launched a voluntary, district-wide* testing initiative in 2016 that was based on the EPA’s "3Ts" (Training, Testing, and Taking Action) and aligned with the federal EPA standard. This established a baseline for every school in the district, identifying and replacing hundreds of older fixtures and piping components.   A five-year rotation of lead testing for all drinking water sources across the district began in 2017, with at least 20% of all Jeffco schools being tested each year.  

Phase 2: State Mandate & "Test and Fix" (2022–2024)

In 2022, the Colorado Legislature passed HB 22-1358 Test and Fix Water for Kids. This shifted the district's focus to a specific state-mandated framework. The law lowered the "action level" from 15 parts per billion (ppb) to 5 ppb  for all schools serving students in preschool through 8th grade.

Jeffco successfully completed this state-mandated surge in early 2025, utilizing state-specific reporting portals and remediation grants to address fixtures that met the new, stricter threshold.

Visit the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment website to view a summary of the results for each drinking water source under the House Bill program.

Phase 3: The Sustainable Rotation (2025–2026)

As of the 2025–26 school year, Jeffco has transitioned from the one-time state mandate back to a recurring internal safety rotation, modeled after the 2016–2022 program.

While the state bill focused primarily on younger students (P-8), our current 2025–26 protocol returns to testing all district facilities, including high schools and administrative sites. We continue to reference the state's 5 ppb goal. Any fixture showing elevated results is immediately taken out of service for remediation.

Our webpage now serves as a central archive, housing historical data from the 2016–22 era, the 2022–24 "Test and Fix" period, and our most recent results.

*Note: Charter schools handle their own facilities and will need to be contacted directly about this issue.