Teachers at Cleveland Elementary School in Northwest Washington carried a wheelchair-using colleague up and down stairs for several weeks this year, after the school's elevator broke down and left her with no way to reach her second-floor office. Carolyn Diaz, who started working at the school in August 2023, called the arrangement “Operation Human Elevator, but it was not a joke.”
Diaz's situation became one of the central examples raised at a D.C. Council oversight hearing on October 8, where lawmakers pressed city officials on why elevator outages have become a recurring problem across the District's public schools. As reported by WJLA, three colleagues organized the effort to carry Diaz up and down the stairs because she had no workable alternative at the time. She has since received a permanent ground-floor teaching space for the 2026–27 school year, though her kindergarten students still attend classes on the second floor, meaning an elevator failure could separate her from the children she teaches.
A School Year That Started Without Working Elevators
Diaz's case is not an isolated one. D.C. Public Schools started the 2026–27 school year with at least 12 schools lacking working elevators, according to testimony cited at the October 8 hearing and reported by WJLA. The Washington Post, citing Department of General Services data, reported separately that 12 elevators or wheelchair lifts were broken across 11 DCPS buildings when students returned in August 2026, leaving five of those schools with zero functioning elevators at all.
DCPS maintains a total portfolio of 204 passenger elevators and wheelchair lifts, according to DGS data reported by The Washington Post. The agency is responsible for maintaining and repairing those elevators, and DCPS says it works with DGS to report and prioritize repairs, while also working with school administrators to maintain safe access to classrooms during outages. According to WJLA, DGS officials said specific cases of repeated failure need individual examination to determine the cause, since repair delays can stem from aging equipment, limited replacement-part availability, contractor capacity, and funding.
Testimony From Beyond Cleveland Elementary
The October 8 roundtable, titled “Stuck on the Ground Floor: Out-of-Service Elevators in the District of Columbia's Public Schools,” was convened jointly by Council Chairman Phil Mendelson and Committee on Facilities Chair Janeese Lewis George, according to a hearing notice posted on Chairman Phil Mendelson's website. Public witnesses included teachers, aides, parents, and students not just from Cleveland Elementary but from Woodson High School and Columbia Heights Education Campus, indicating the accessibility barriers extended across multiple school communities.
Per the WJLA account of the hearing, the Cleveland Elementary elevator had been out of service for an estimated four to five months combined during Diaz's employment, according to Diaz, and had been the subject of 35 maintenance work orders by her account. DCPS has acknowledged teacher and family concerns about accessibility, and says it has committed to supporting schools with programming changes — such as relocating classes to accessible areas — when substantial elevator work or parts are pending. Even so, the station's report notes those accommodations were not made consistently in every situation described by hearing witnesses, and schools are not universally required to notify affected families when an elevator goes down.
Trapped Students, Missed Classes, and a Graduation Ceremony
The hearing also highlighted how elevator outages can disrupt students and families.
One student at Cleveland Elementary climbed stairs one step at a time on crutches after fracturing her ankle, because the elevator was unavailable. A fourth-grade student missed additional school days after a hospitalization, because his doctor instructed him not to climb stairs to his fourth-floor classroom. In another incident recounted at the hearing, volunteers carried a wheelchair-using father upstairs so he could attend his daughter's kindergarten graduation.
Why Repairs Take So Long
DGS oversees nearly 350 passenger elevators and wheelchair lifts across its portfolio, with nearly 200 in the DCPS portfolio, according to the agency's FAQ. DGS says proprietary and brand-specific parts can make repairs more challenging.
DGS repair guidance estimates that removing, repairing, and retesting certain aging controllers can take two to six weeks, while repairs requiring custom manufacture of obsolete or discontinued parts can take four to 12 weeks. DGS currently has one repair vendor and plans to add vendors in fiscal year 2027.
Federal Accessibility Rules and Limited Contingency Plans
When school elevators are out of service, access to classrooms can become a disability-rights concern.
DGS guidance says the agency maintains no temporary elevators or portable wheelchair lifts for emergency deployment during outages, and prioritizes repair work orders only after DCPS confirms that a disabled individual is on site, according to the agency's own published FAQ.
A Growing Portfolio, a Shrinking Budget Per Elevator
The size of DGS's elevator and wheelchair-lift portfolio raises questions about whether maintenance resources are keeping pace.
Elevator repairs are among the many infrastructure needs competing for DGS resources.
What's Changing — and What Isn't Fast Enough
DGS says it plans to add repair vendors and a third-party vendor for inspections in fiscal year 2027.
DGS and DCPS say they identify elevators needing replacement and prioritize those projects through the District's broader capital planning process, with DGS stating its goal is to keep 100% of its elevators working.
Diaz's experience underscores how important elevator access is in a multilevel public school.
