Painting and Renovating Safely

For child care providers and school maintenance staff

As a child care provider or school maintenance staff, you can take simple steps to ensure the safety and well-being of the children in your care.

Find out when your school or child care facility was built. If the facility was built before 1978, assume it has lead paint unless it has been tested by a certified renovator or lead inspector/risk assessor and found not to have lead paint.
Have your school or child care facility tested by a certified lead inspector/risk assessor or a licensed lead-safe contractor for lead.

Become certified to conduct lead-safe work or hire a lead-safe certified professional for maintenance or renovations. It's the law! See Renovation, Repair and Painting FAQs for Child Care and Schools.
If the RRP rule does not apply to a specific job, follow the information provided in the EPA/HUD Lead Paint Safety: A Field Guide for Painting, Maintenance, and Renovation Work (pdf). This guide will help you plan and carry out the work safely.
Remove all belongings from the work area or cover them in plastic before the work starts.
Once renovation, maintenance and repair work is complete and cleaning has been performed, make sure the certified renovator has verified it is cleaned or have a certified lead professional take dust wipe samples to ensure that the work area is safe for re-occupancy.
When renovation, repair, painting and maintenance work on painted surfaces is scheduled, keep all children and pregnant women out of the work area until clean-up and verification or dust wipe samples have confirmed that the area is safe for re-occupancy.