My Child Tested Positive for Lead: What Pennsylvania Parents Should Do Next

A positive blood lead test for your child is frightening news, and the urge to fix everything at once is natural. The steadying part is that the response is well-mapped. It is a short, ordered sequence of steps that your child's doctor, public-health agencies, and Pennsylvania's own family programs already know how to walk you through. This guide lays them out plainly, for parents and tenants anywhere in Pennsylvania. It is published by a lead-certification company whose usual readers are landlords, but this page is written for you, the parent, and it asks nothing of you except that you take the next step.

What a positive result actually means

The CDC uses a blood lead reference value of 3.5 micrograms per deciliter to identify children who have more lead in their blood than most children. A result at or above that value is what Pennsylvania records as an elevated blood lead level. It is not a diagnosis of a fixed outcome. It is a signal that lead is getting into your child and that the exposure should be found and stopped.

Source: CDC, Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention (2026)

There is no known safe blood lead level in children, which is exactly why a positive result is worth acting on promptly rather than waiting to see whether the number climbs. It is also worth keeping in perspective. A first elevated result from a finger-stick sample is often confirmed with a second draw from a vein before conclusions are drawn, and your doctor decides that timing.

Source: CDC, Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention (2026)

You are also not alone in this. In 2023, 7,840 Pennsylvania children under six had a confirmed elevated blood lead level, which was 4.7% of the children who were tested that year. The programs and pathways below exist because this is a common, well-understood problem with a well-understood response.

Source: PA Dept. of Health, 2023 Childhood Lead Surveillance Annual Report (2023)

Step one: talk to your child's doctor

Your child's doctor is the first call, not the last. They confirm the level, set the follow-up testing schedule, check your child's iron and nutrition (both affect how much lead the body absorbs), and decide whether any additional evaluation or referral is warranted. Higher levels prompt closer follow-up. Most children with an elevated level need careful monitoring and source removal rather than any dramatic intervention, and the number tends to fall once the source of exposure is gone.

Source: CDC, Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention (2026)

Step two: find the lead and stop the exposure

Removing the source is the single most important thing that brings a blood lead level down. For young children, the most common source by far is deteriorating lead-based paint and the fine dust it creates in homes built before 1978, the year the federal government banned lead-based paint for consumer use. Lead can also come from bare or contaminated soil, from older plumbing (homes built before 1986 are more likely to have lead pipes, solder, or fixtures), and from some imported pottery, cosmetics, spices, and toys.

Source: EPA, Protect Your Family from Sources of Lead (2026)

One warning matters enough to state on its own: do not try to remove old paint yourself by sanding, scraping, or dry-sweeping. Those methods create exactly the fine lead dust that harms children, and they can raise exposure sharply. Work that disturbs paint in a pre-1978 home should be done by a contractor certified in lead-safe renovation practices, who contains and cleans the dust instead of spreading it.

Source: EPA, Lead (2026)

Programs that can help, and the numbers to call

Pennsylvania has established, free programs for families in exactly this position. The PA Lead-Free Promise Project's Parent Resource Toolkit points parents to three of them, and any of the three can be reached directly by phone:

• Early Intervention provides free developmental evaluation and support services for young children, which matters because lead exposure can affect learning and development. Pennsylvania's CONNECT Helpline reaches it at 1-800-692-7288.
• WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) supports nutrition for eligible families, and good nutrition genuinely helps limit how much lead a child's body absorbs. Reach Pennsylvania WIC at 1-800-WIC-WINS (1-800-942-9467).
• Head Start is a free early-childhood program that includes health screening and family support. Find a local program through the Head Start locator at 1-866-763-6481.

Source: PA Lead-Free Promise Project, Parent Resource Toolkit (2026)

What you can do at home this week

While you work through the doctor visit and the source of the exposure, a handful of everyday habits measurably lower how much lead a child takes in. None of them require special equipment, and together they make a real difference:

• Wet-clean floors, windowsills, and window wells often with a damp cloth or mop. Lead lives in dust, and wet-cleaning removes it instead of stirring it back into the air the way dry dusting or sweeping does.
• Wash your child's hands before every meal, before naps and bedtime, and after playing outside or on the floor. Wash bottles, pacifiers, and toys that go in the mouth regularly.
• Take shoes off at the door so lead-bearing soil and dust are not tracked through the home.
• Use only cold tap water for drinking, cooking, and making formula, and let the tap run for a bit first if the water has been sitting. Hot water pulls more lead from older plumbing.
• Offer meals and snacks on a regular schedule, since an empty stomach absorbs more lead, and include foods rich in iron, calcium, and vitamin C.
• Keep children away from peeling or chipping paint and from bare soil, and wash fruits and vegetables before eating.

Source: CDC, Preventing Lead Exposure (2026)

Source: EPA, Protect Your Family from Sources of Lead (2026)

If you rent your home

If you rent, you may not control repairs, but you are not without options. Federal law requires landlords of most housing built before 1978 to disclose known lead-based paint and hazards and to give tenants an EPA-approved lead pamphlet before a lease. Beyond disclosure, many Pennsylvania counties run free, HUD-funded lead hazard control programs that repair lead hazards for income-eligible households with a young child or pregnant occupant in a pre-1978 home. Your county or municipal health department can point you to the nearest one, and the statewide resource directory that the PA Lead-Free Promise Project maintains is another starting point.

Source: EPA, Lead (2026)

Source: PA Lead-Free Promise Project, Parent Resource Toolkit (2026)

And if you rent and believe the home itself may be the source, you can ask your landlord whether the property holds a current lead-safe or lead-free certification, and request a copy. In the Pennsylvania towns that require one, it is a document your landlord should already have on file.