Watching young children engage in outdoor play is one of my favorite parts of the work I do. As they immerse themselves in their senses, they use a wide range of skills, acquire and practice newly discovered competencies, and fully engage in curiosity. 

As the Design Director for Nature Explore, I work to design safe, supportive, and intentional outdoor classrooms for early education programs, family care centers, and community organizations across the country and around the globe. Our program has over 550 certified Nature Explore classrooms located in bustling urban environments, curated suburban centers, and sprawling rural spaces. 

At the early stages of a design consultation, my job is to work collaboratively with each client to understand the goals and needs of the young children and educators who will use the space. To help ground the design solution, each plan is rooted in Nature Explore’s 10 research-based guiding principles. When I design using these principles, I know the teachers and students will be set up for success. In addition to developing designs that are functional, beautiful spaces for play, learning, and relationship building—I’m also thinking about local licensing and regulatory requirements. Safety is a high priority when crafting a space where young children can learn and explore.

When a colleague introduced me to the work of the Children’s Environmental Health Network and their Eco-Healthy Child Care® program, I was intrigued to see what synergies existed between our work. I quickly learned that they have a wealth of information to share on how to think about safety in the natural environment while preserving the needs and respecting the limitations of each program. Lead awareness and safety within early care and education environments is an important element of their work.

Soil in outdoor classrooms: Recognizing the rewards and risks 

One of the most common elements we work with in our design is dirt. A kid favorite and a staple of outdoor play– dirt and sand activities can be used for gross motor development when using shovels, fine motor skill practice when sifting and creating patterns using a finger or small tool. It can also be used to enhance social-emotional skills as children play and work together. 

Although we always give guidance to our sites on testing for harmful chemicals, I learned from Hester Paul, National Director of the Eco-Healthy Child Care® program at the Children’s Environmental Health Network, and Jessica Price, Eco-Healthy Child Care® Program Manager at the Children’s Environmental Health Network that testing for lead in soil is an important and often overlooked step in establishing a safe baseline. CEHN’s Eco-Healthy Child Care® program along with its partners at the National Center for Healthy Housing developed a lead testing kit and checklist to make this process simple and accessible for programs of all sizes and capacities. 

Nature Explore is a program of Dimensions Educational Research Foundation. Dimensions also operates an early childhood education program which includes several certified outdoor classrooms. After learning about the toolkit, I wanted to try it out on the soil in our outdoor classrooms.

Committing to Awareness and Testing

I’ll admit, when I considered the idea of testing the soil, I felt nervous. I also felt some shame that I didn’t push for testing earlier. What if there were high levels of lead in our outdoor classroom? What would we do? How would we explain this to our families? What would be the cost of rectifying the situation to make sure our children were safe? These thoughts were loud, but my commitment to our young ones and my desire to help programs that may face this same reality were louder. 

I took on the assignment of testing the soil for lead using guidance from the Lead-Safe Toolkit. The toolkit includes a list of EPA-recognized soil testing labs. I also learned that university extension offices are good resources to find a testing center. After looking into several options, I ordered a kit for $45 (including shipping).

It only took a few days to receive my package and then it was time to return to the toolkit for next steps. I watched the webinar on lead in soil and used the lead in soil worksheet to learn about factors that may affect risk of exposure, such as when was our center built, which would indicate what kind of paint may have been used. I also learned how young children are exposed to lead in soil, making it important to test, and how to reduce the dangers of lead in soil. Once I collected my sample using the instructions included with the kit, it was time to send it off. 

Waiting for the results was the hardest part of the process. I had time to consider the worst-case scenarios and worry about what we would do. I decided to create a plan before I got the results so that if there was a problem, I would start from a place of knowledge. 

What would I do if there was lead in our soil?

One excellent benefit of the Lead-Safe Toolkit is that it provides solutions and guidelines to address lead if identified. Here are the four steps I would take if the results indicated that there was a high level of lead in our child care center’s soil.

1. Create a document to inform families using the local health department’s guidance on testing children for lead and reducing the harm of exposure. We would also host a meeting for our families to learn more about our testing results, inviting a local health advocate to attend and answer key health questions.
2. At the same time, we would begin eliminating the risk by covering soil areas with mulch or sod, and replacing harmful dirt with safe dirt that we test upfront.
3. Create a lead safety policy and take our staff and teachers through the Eco-Healthy Child Care® e-learning course. 
4. Develop a regular testing schedule for environmental hazards including lead.

Our Lead Testing Results and Final Thoughts on Lead Testing

When the results finally arrived, we breathed a sigh of relief, as the test showed that lead levels were well below the limit of 200 parts per million set by the EPA. In viewing the webinars in the Lead-Safe Toolkit, I learned that lead occurs naturally in soil at low levels and that not all lead in soil is “bio-available” (able to be absorbed into the bloodstream). We were able to document these results and complete the Child Care Center checklist for lead. 

Although this process took some doing, it was well worth it to ensure safety in our outdoor environment. It also provided an opportunity for me to reflect on how we can incorporate more lead-specific guidance into our Nature Explore resources. Also, now I can better identify areas at a higher risk for contamination and can counsel clients as they go through this process for themselves.

In the remaining parts of this series, we will explore two other common methods of lead exposure in early care environments; water and paint.

This is the second installment of a collaborative series with The Children’s Environmental Health Network’s Eco-Healthy Child Care® program to explore the realities of lead exposure, how to detect lead, and accessible ways to protect your children and care environment from this harmful heavy metal.