Get a test without paying first
For City of Jackson, start with a duty the utility or a public agency already has. A paid certified kit is the last step, not the first.
The strongest public case is children under six: test the tap before a blood-lead spike. CLPPP, Title V, Head Start, WIC, and WIIN already pay health departments and schools to do that work. Read the funding inversion.
Step 1
LCRI consumer-requested tap sampling
The water system must offer to sample the tap for lead on request. This is a utility duty, not an EPA check to a household.
Anyone served by a lead, galvanized-requiring-replacement, or unknown service line
Only applies if the inventory classified the line. Unknown or missing inventories leave people out.
Step 2
Local or state health department testing
Free or reduced certified testing in some counties. EPA tells residents to start here — EPA will not test a home itself.
Households, often with priority for children or pregnant people
County-by-county. Many departments only test wells, or only after a blood-lead finding.
Step 3
WIIN school and child-care lead testing
Testing and, after IIJA, remediation. EPA announced $26 million for states and territories in June 2025; more than $200 million since 2018.
Schools and licensed child-care programs, via the state
Does not pay for a private kitchen tap. Useful as a school/clinic channel, not a home SKU.
Step 4
DWSRF set-asides (non-routine sampling)
Non-routine lead sampling (including schools and child care), inventories, outreach, and education. BIL also funds full lead-line replacement.
State programs and public water systems — not individual residents
Routine compliance sampling, blood tests, bottled water, and household kit mailers to residents are ineligible.
Step 5
HUD Lead Hazard Reduction / Healthy Homes
HUD has said lead-grant funds may test drinking water as a direct hazard-control cost, and Healthy Homes supplements may replace leaded fixtures.
Low-income pre-1978 housing treated by a city, county, or tribal grantee
Residents cannot apply to HUD. They go through the local grantee, and water is secondary to paint.
Step 6
CDC Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention
Surveillance, education, linkage to care, and environmental investigations that may include water sampling. Cannot pay medical treatment or pipe replacement.
Health departments and bona fide agents; families of children at high risk or with an elevated blood-lead level
Usually arrives after a blood-lead finding. Past the Plant’s job is to get CLPPP to fund primary prevention at the tap first.
Step 7
Medicaid EPSDT environmental follow-up
Required screening plus, in some state plans, a medically necessary environmental investigation that can include water. Not abatement.
Medicaid-enrolled children; blood-lead tests at 12 and 24 months
The Institute does not bill Medicaid. A health department that already does EPSDT follow-up uses the platform as the tap-sampling layer.
Step 8
Title V Maternal and Child Health Block Grant
State-chosen child-health activities in the Title V action plan. Lead can sit under Child Health. Cannot be cash to families or most infrastructure.
State MCH programs; pregnant people, infants, and children, especially low-income
Only if Illinois (or the beachhead state) names tap-water prevention in its plan.
Step 9
Head Start / Early Head Start lead-in-water duty
45 CFR 1302.47 requires a prevention plan and testing at least every two years where lead may exist. Program funds and WIIN can pay for tests and fixes.
Head Start facilities; every fixture used for drinking, cooking, or formula
Covers the center, not the child’s kitchen at home — unless CLPPP or HUD follows that family home.
Step 10
Certified lab kit (resident or sponsor)
Quantified lead and copper from an accredited lab, typically $55–$59 for a focused kit. Sponsors can underwrite a census tract.
Anyone, including renters the utility never samples
This is the fallback after free utility and health-department options are exhausted.
Live lab intake is not wired yet. Other systems: Chicago, Benton Harbor, Jackson, New York.