Lead (Pb) is a toxic metal that can be harmful to children when ingested or inhaled.  Since Pb is held strongly by soil minerals and organic matter, it is a difficult candidate for phytoremediation. However, it is essential to remediate lead-contaminated soils because many of the soil-bound phases of Pb, despite being unavailable for plant uptake, are bioavailable to the human gastrointestinal system. In order to increase plant uptake, Pb has to be mobilized from 'bound' phases to 'exchangeable' form. We performed a greenhouse study to investigate the effects of two chelating agents: ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) and ethylenediaminedisuccinic acid (EDDS) application on Pb availability to vetiver grass (Vetiveria zizanioides), as well as on reducing Pb bioaccessibilty. Based on soil characterization results, two most appropriate soils (one each from San Antonio, TX; and Baltimore, MD cities, having similar total soil Pb levels around 1500 mg/kg but variable physico-chemical properties) were selected for this study. Plants were allowed to grow for a period of 2 months before chelates were applied at three different rates (5, 10 and 15 mM/kg EDTA or EDDS), and compared with unamended treatments. Vetiver was harvested on day 10 of chelate addition. The soils were subject to a Pb sequential fractionation scheme, and two in-vitro tests (IVGS and IVGIA) to simulate soil Pb bioavailability in the human gastrointestinal system. Results indicate that Pb bioaccessibility decreased with increasing concentration of chelate added to soils. This could be explained by the decrease in the total soil Pb concentrations, which in turn, was well accounted for the amount of Pb found in the vetiver tissue and loss in leachates as calculated using the mass balance approach.