Get Tested: How and Where to Test Children, Homes, and Water
This page answers three practical questions: how do I get my child tested, how do I get my home tested, and how do I get my water tested. Each pathway has different actors, costs, and timelines.
Get your child’s blood lead tested
A blood lead test is a simple, inexpensive medical procedure performed at your pediatrician’s office, a community health center, or a public-health clinic. It can be done as a finger-stick (capillary) sample for screening, with venous confirmation if the screening result exceeds the CDC reference value.
How to Get a Blood Lead Test
1. **Schedule with your pediatrician.** Mention specifically: “I’d like a blood lead test.” For children covered by Medicaid, this is a required EPSDT screen at 12 and 24 months and is free.
2. **Outside Medicaid:** most pediatric well-visits include the option for blood lead screening at minimal cost (typically $15–$50 depending on insurance). The AAP recommends it for children in pre-1978 housing or other risk categories.
3. **No insurance:** contact your state or county health department. Most maintain free testing programs for children at risk. Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) provide pediatric blood lead testing on a sliding-fee scale and accept patients regardless of insurance.
4. **The screening result returns in 5–10 minutes** at the point-of-care or 1–3 days from the lab. Any result at or above 3.5 µg/dL on a finger-stick triggers a venous draw confirmation.
There is no FDA-approved at-home blood lead test for children. Any product marketed for self-administration to a child should be regarded with skepticism. Testing requires capillary or venous blood draw and laboratory analysis or point-of-care analyzer. This is not difficult to obtain — it is a routine pediatric procedure.
Get your home tested
Home testing has two distinct procedures with different purposes:
Lead inspection
A lead inspection identifies whether lead-based paint is present in a home. It uses XRF (X-ray fluorescence) instruments to quantify lead content in painted surfaces. Inspections produce a yes/no answer per painted component but do not assess hazard — they identify the presence of lead-based paint regardless of condition.
Best for: real-estate transactions, pre-renovation planning, peace of mind in pre-1978 homes.
Typical cost: $300–$600 for a single-family home (varies by region and home size).
Risk assessment
A risk assessment evaluates whether lead-based paint, contaminated dust, or contaminated soil constitutes an active hazard to occupants. It includes paint condition assessment, dust wipe sampling, and (if relevant) soil sampling. Risk assessments produce specific hazard findings with EPA-validated thresholds.
Best for: homes with young children, elevated blood lead level findings, or pre-1978 homes with deteriorating paint.
Typical cost: $500–$1,200 for a single-family home.
Both inspections and risk assessments must be performed by EPA RRP-certified firms and certified individual professionals. Verify certification at epa.gov/lead/find-rrp-firm before hiring. Verification takes under two minutes.
HUD lead hazard reduction grants
For income-qualified households, the HUD Lead Hazard Reduction Grant Program funds free or substantially-subsidized lead inspections, risk assessments, and abatement work. Grants are administered through state and local participating jurisdictions. Eligibility, waitlists, and program design vary substantially by jurisdiction. Contact your local HUD field office or state housing authority.
Get your water tested
Water testing must be performed by an EPA-certified laboratory. Self-test strips and consumer-grade kits do not produce results that satisfy regulatory standards.
How to Get Drinking Water Tested for Lead
1. **Locate a certified lab.** Your state health department maintains a public list of EPA-certified labs. Search “[your state] EPA certified drinking water lab.”
2. **Request a kit.** The lab provides a sample bottle with collection instructions. Cost: typically $25–$50 per sample.
3. **Collect the sample correctly.** The standard diagnostic protocol: collect the **first-draw morning sample** — water that has sat in the pipes overnight (at least 6 hours, no longer than 24 hours). This represents the worst-case lead concentration.
4. **Mail the sample to the lab** following the instructions exactly. Results return in 5–10 business days.
5. **Interpret with the EPA standard.** The 2024 LCRI Action Level is 10 µg/L (10 parts per billion). Any result above is actionable.
6. **If your community is served by a water system,** check your utility’s annual Consumer Confidence Report (CCR), available on the utility website. The CCR reports system-level monitoring but not individual tap results.
Free testing programs
Many state and local programs offer free lead-in-water testing for households in priority areas:
- EPA WIIN Lead Testing in Schools and Child Care Facilities Grant — funds free testing in schools and licensed child care.
- State Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Programs — many states offer free water testing for households with children with elevated blood lead levels.
- Utility-funded programs — some water utilities provide free or low-cost testing in known LSL service areas.
Contact your state health department or local water utility for current program availability.
References & Sources Consulted
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention: Testing. Updated 2024.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Find a Certified Renovator or Inspector. Lead Renovation, Repair and Painting Program.
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Lead Hazard Reduction Grant Program. Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Drinking Water Sampling for Lead at the Tap. Office of Water; 2023.
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. EPSDT: A Guide for States. 2024 update.