MPS let kids into lead-contaminated classrooms, state says

Milwaukee Public Schools allowed students to return to classrooms that were still contaminated with lead even after cleanup work had been done.

That’s according to a Wednesday letter sent by the state Department of Health Services to the school district, which has been grappling with a lead contamination issue for several weeks.

On March 11, the letter said, state and city inspectors came to the Fernwood Montessori School to check the work an MPS lead remediation crew had done overnight.

Fernwood was one of 10 schools the Milwaukee Health Department said it was “assessing” that week, according to an email from a department spokesperson to WPR.

Inspectors found lead dust and paint chips in several classrooms that had cleanup work done, including a “significant amount of paint chips and renovation debris” within arm’s reach of a child’s desk.

“MPS allowed children back into the work areas at Fernwood to attend class on March 11, 2025, while paint chip dust and debris from the previous night’s work was present,” the letter states.

MPS temporarily closed Fernwood six days after that inspection, along with two other schools — Starms Early Childhood School and the LaFollette School — due to “significant lead hazards,” according to the city health department.

Those three schools haven’t been reopened, according to the Milwaukee Health Department’s MPS lead hazards update page.

A fourth school, the Trowbridge Street School for Great Lakes Studies, was closed in late February and reopened last Friday.

In a statement Friday, an MPS spokesperson said the district was establishing “new accountability measures” aligning its practices “with federal and state cleaning procedures.” The district will submit that plan to the Milwaukee Health Department, which has been leading the lead inspections at the schools.

“MPS continues the practice of consulting the Milwaukee Health Department each step of the process so that students and staff can safely return to their schools,” according to the statement.

Lead exposure can cause serious health issues for children, including cognitive damage, hearing and speech problems and slowed growth and development.

Letter outlines training issue, orders MPS to correct course

The state’s letter also said 11 MPS employees that had been doing lead remediation work may not have been trained to do so.

“Records do not indicate if they were trained by a certified lead safe renovator or what they were trained on,” the letter states.

Now, the letter ordered, MPS must notify the state and city health departments whenever it’s doing lead renovation work, including naming the “certified lead-safe renovator” who will be onsite.

It also ordered the school district to follow existing state health codes. These include training and certifying anyone doing lead work as well as doing extensive post-work cleanups.

At least four MPS students have tested positive for lead poisoning in recent months. Initially, those four cases sparked inspections and cleanups of the students’ schools.

Fernwood was one of three schools closed not due to a student being lead-poisoned, but “out of an abundance of caution,” according to MPS’s closure letter.

This week, the Milwaukee Health Department opened a free, walk-in lead blood testing clinic at a Children’s Wisconsin location at 2561 N. 29th St. in Milwaukee. It operates every Tuesday and Thursday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.