Giving Compass' Take:

• Students living in Flint, Michigan have been exposed to high levels of lead in their drinking water following mismanagement of their water system. Now, schools will provide screenings to diagnosis children who have been exposed to the harmful heavy metal.

• How can policy better prevent crises like the water crisis in Flint, Michigan? How did race and socio-economic status help create the crisis, and allow it to go unresolved? 

• Find out how Flint students were disadvantaged before the water crisis. 

All children impacted by the Flint water crisis will be eligible for universal screening for educational and health problems associated with lead exposure, attorneys announced.

“This is truly an historic partnership between the state, the county, Flint community schools, the Flint community itself, and the public health community. It is one that we believe is unprecedented and groundbreaking,” Greg Little, chief trial counsel at the Education Law Center, said on a call with reporters.

The Education Law Center and the ACLU of Michigan brought a class-action lawsuit on behalf of Flint children in 2016, alleging that the state of Michigan and Flint schools failed to appropriately identify children with special needs and provide them with appropriate services — a problem that is likely to worsen as additional children who may have been exposed to lead in the city’s water enroll in school.

The partial settlement came just days after Michigan state officials announced they would no longer provide free bottled water to Flint residents. Gov. Rick Snyder in a statement that lead levels are below what the federal government considers dangerous, though many residents still don’t trust the water system, The Detroit News reported.

Read the full article on Flint, Michigan lead screening by Carolyn Phenicie at The 74.