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Lead in a school or a day care
The Frankel Law Firm has been helping victims of lead poisoning and serious personal injuries for more than 40 years, and we are proud of that legacy. A child can be exposed at home and still be exposed in the room where they spend the day. If that room is in a Department of Education school, the claim runs against a public body, and its notice rules are easy to miss. If the room is in a day care center for children under six, the City’s lead-paint rules for day care apply. Please call for a free consultation. There is no fee to speak to us or for us to evaluate your potential case.
What to do now
Do not scrape paint in a classroom or a day care room. Photograph peeling paint before anyone repairs it. Tell the school or the center in writing. Call 311 about chipping paint. For a Department of Education building, the DOE posts classroom paint-inspection results by borough on its website. A report to the school, the DOE, or 311 is not a notice of claim.
Keep the lab slip from any blood lead test, the school or center name, notes about the room or building, and any written reply. A claim against a private day care operator does not require a notice of claim; a claim against the Department of Education does.
Call The Frankel Law Firm promptly if the Department of Education or another public body may be responsible. Notice periods for a claim against a public body are short.
Claims against a city school or the DOE
A claim involving a New York City public school can run against the Department of Education rather than the City. That is not the same as a landlord claim under Local Law 1 for an apartment, and it is not the same as a claim against NYCHA. A public-school lead claim is typically a tort claim against the DOE as the responsible public body for the school.
For a tort claim against a school district or board of education, Education Law § 3813 (2) requires a notice of claim under General Municipal Law § 50-e, and the action is commenced under § 50-i. Serving the right public body matters. Section 50-e (5) lists an excusable mistake about which public corporation to serve as one circumstance a court weighs on a late-notice request. The statute stresses whether the public body, its attorney, or its insurance carrier acquired actual knowledge of the essential facts within the notice period or a reasonable time after; infancy is also a listed factor. Leave is discretionary, not guaranteed.
Courts have dismissed claims against the City for injuries in public schools because the Board of Education, which operates as the Department of Education, is a legal entity separate from the City and controls the schools — see, for example, Perez v City of New York, 41 AD3d 378 (1st Dept 2007); Leacock v City of New York, 61 AD3d 827 (2d Dept 2009).
Home and school exposure can both matter, and each source can point to a different responsible party. For City, NYCHA, and school deadlines, see Time limits.
A pending case against the Department of Education
On August 5, 2026, The Frankel Law Firm announced that it filed a lawsuit in Supreme Court, Bronx County, against the New York City Department of Education. The announcement describes a Bronx mother and her five-year-old son; it does not name the family or state a blood lead number.
The announcement describes the Department of Education’s alleged placement of the child in a District 75 classroom in the Bronx building that houses P.S. 46. It describes a blood test on January 28, 2026, and six days in the hospital for chelation, and it says the complaint pleads three causes of action in negligence. Those are allegations, not findings. The firm is counsel to the family.
According to the announcement, the complaint seeks compensatory damages to be determined by a jury. The filing is not a settlement, no recovery amount is stated, and the announcement does not say the Department of Education has admitted the claims.
Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. A filed case can be dismissed, settled, or tried. The amount, if any, is not known.
Day care under City law
New York City Administrative Code § 17-922 bars peeling lead-based paint in any part of a covered facility. Section 17-920 defines a covered facility as the rooms, areas, and other spaces regulated by Article 47 of the City’s Health Code (child care programs for children under six) or Article 43 (school-based programs for children ages three through five); home-based family and group family day care, which the State regulates, is not included. Under § 17-921, all paint on the interior of a covered facility in a building erected before January 1, 1978, is presumed to be lead-based paint. The operator, or the owner of the premises, can rebut that presumption only with sworn statements backed by test results and any other proof the Health Department requires; only a certified lead inspector or risk assessor may do the testing, and the Health Department decides whether the proof is enough. Under § 17-924, the operator must survey the facility at least once a year and give the results to the Health Department and to each child’s parent or guardian.
If you see chips on a door, baseboard, or wall, tell the facility in writing, call 311, and ask for the latest paint survey. When peeling lead paint is found, the Health Department must immediately order the operator to fix it; once the order is served, the operator must post notices near the entrance, and the facility must tell every child’s parent or guardian that a hazard was found (§§ 17-922, 17-179). A child poisoned at a day care may have a claim based on duties under common law and New York City and New York State law.
Public school 3-K, pre-K, and kindergarten
The same Administrative Code rules reach public school classrooms for young children. Health Code Article 43 regulates 3-K, pre-K, and kindergarten programs for children ages three through five that are in or part of a school, so those rooms are covered facilities. In a Department of Education school, the annual survey must include the classrooms, libraries, cafeterias, and gyms designated for young children, and the DOE must also survey those classrooms at least three times a year and share the results with the Health Department and with parents (§ 17-924).
NYC Health Code § 45.12 applies to a kindergarten conducted as part of an elementary school by the Department of Education. It bars peeling lead-based paint, and peeling paint of unknown lead content, on any surface in the kindergarten. Either kind must be abated or remediated immediately upon discovery. Children may not be in, or have access to, any room or area undergoing that work, or other work that disturbs lead-based paint or paint of unknown lead content, until final clean-up and clearance dust testing are complete. Each year the Department of Education must “conduct a survey of the condition of surfaces in kindergarten classrooms, where the surfaces of such classrooms or other areas used by children under six years of age are covered with lead-based paint or paint of unknown lead content.”
There is no fee to speak to us or for us to evaluate your potential case.
Lead poisoning information
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