INWOOD — After keeping Spanish-speaking parents in the dark for more than a week about the lead levels at the P.S./I.S. 176 — which houses Muscota New School and Amistad Dual Language school — the Department of Education said it will provide translation services at a water safety meeting Thursday evening.
The water safety meeting at the school located on 4863 Broadway was announced by the Department of Education and the Department of Health after students were sent home with a letter on Feb. 6 with the results of a new round of lead level tests of the school's water that found samples with up to 450 times the federal limit.
The elevated lead levels were found at 12 sites including sinks in classrooms and bathrooms, kitchen faucets and water fountains.
READ MORE: Lead Levels in Inwood School's Water Are Up To 450 Times Federal Limit
But parents at the school said the letters, which were written in English, left Spanish-speakers in the dark until this week, when the DOE finally sent a translated version to Amistad on Feb. 13. The letters were sent home with students on Feb. 14.
Muscota — which got their Spanish-speaking letter from Amistad — didn't send out a copy to parents until Feb. 15, a week and a half after the English version. Parents said they also received a phone call informing them of the letter and meeting on Wednesday morning, after DNAinfo New York published a story about the confusion.
“I didn’t know anything about it until I received that call,” Ines Fajardo, who has a daughter in Muscota, said in Spanish to DNAinfo New York. “I’m very upset they didn’t tell us about this sooner.”
“I always try to attend all these meetings, especially when it has to do with [my daughter’s] health,” Fajardo added.
The DOE said it provides translated letters to schools upon request and that they were looking into the cause of the delay of the letter in Inwood. They try to provide letters within 24 hours, they said.
READ MORE: Here's What You Need to Know About Lead Water Testing in City Schools
