Parents of special education students at Prescott Elementary School in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood say their children have been taught in offices, hallways, storage rooms, stairwells and classrooms containing asbestos since the school converted resource rooms into a dance studio and music room. Chicago Public Schools disputes that any students have been displaced, though the district acknowledges some classrooms were relocated.
The dispute centers on what parents describe as a summer remodel that pushed special-education instruction out of dedicated rooms. According to CBS News Chicago, parents say their kids are now learning in stairwell landings and storage areas converted into makeshift classrooms. Parents told the station that last year the school approved and built a brand new dance room and a new music room, moving into space where special education instruction had previously occurred.
A separate report from Citizen Portal puts a number on the scale of the disruption, stating that the changeover left approximately 80 students receiving IEP services in temporary, inequitable spaces. That account describes students with IEPs being relocated to closets, stairwells, the assistant principal's office and borrowed classrooms. The same report states the project cost the school in the high five-figure range.
A Mother's Four-Month Fight
Ana Ribeiro, a parent at the school, said she has spent four months seeking action on the issues she has encountered, describing herself as frustrated and disappointed, according to NBC Chicago. Ribeiro said parents learned in June that special education students would lose some basement spaces to a music room and a dance room. She hired an attorney to try to ensure her son receives services in an appropriate space, and she said she reviewed CPS asbestos reports for the building just last week.
Ribeiro told the station she concluded no work had been done on crumbling basement walls, plaster walls and tiles at the school. She said teachers themselves were suffering from having to teach in these spaces, and she argued that burdening only children with disabilities with inadequate space amounted to discrimination rather than a simple space issue. Still, Ribeiro said she hoped her child would continue at Prescott, telling the outlet her family loves the school community. Parents, including Ribeiro, have filed formal complaints with the state board of education, per CBS News Chicago.
CPS Pushes Back on Displacement Claims
Chicago Public Schools has pushed back directly on the central claim driving the parents' complaints. The district said all instructional areas at Prescott Elementary are safe, and that while some classrooms have been relocated, no students have been displaced, according to CBS News Chicago. CPS also acknowledged concerns from some Prescott parents and community members about space for special education services, per the station's reporting.
In a statement reported by NBC Chicago, CPS said its leaders and staff are dedicated to providing students with disabilities the services outlined in their individualized education plans, and that the district follows Board of Education policies along with city and state regulations to ensure instructional spaces are safe. The district added that every student, including students with disabilities, should have a safe and appropriate learning environment where IEP services are provided as required. On its own website, Chicago Public Schools states that a child's IEP guides the type, scope and assignment of services and supports the child receives, and that federal requirements generally call for students with disabilities to be educated alongside general-education peers to the maximum extent appropriate. CPS describes cluster programs, one of its special-education placement models, as separate classrooms for students who need a significantly modified curriculum with moderate to intensive supports for most of the school day.
State Investigation Remains Open
The Illinois Department of Public Health has an open investigation regarding asbestos at the school, but a department spokesperson said it could not provide additional information because the investigation is ongoing, NBC Chicago reported. That leaves unresolved exactly what inspectors have found inside the building, even as parents say they have reviewed CPS's own asbestos paperwork.
Concerns about asbestos handling are not new for the district. The federal Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act requires education agencies to inspect public school buildings for the material and develop management plans to remove it and prevent exposure, according to a report from WTTW News. That report found CPS had fallen behind on removing or encapsulating asbestos identified in dozens of school buildings, noting that in 2015 the district had not finished removing or repairing asbestos flagged two years earlier at Maria Saucedo Academy, Philip D. Armour Elementary School and Roberto Clemente Community Academy. A 2016 Asbestos Nation report cited in the same piece found that only a fraction of CPS schools were following inspectors' recommendations to remove or repair asbestos.
For now, the core factual dispute at Prescott remains unsettled: parents say roughly 80 students with IEPs are learning in stairwells, closets and storage spaces, while CPS maintains no students have been displaced even as it concedes some classrooms moved. With the state health department's investigation still open and parents having filed formal complaints with the Illinois State Board of Education, families at the Lincoln Park school are waiting to see which account holds up.
