Teachers and School Staff

Older schools could contain asbestos in boiler rooms, pipe insulation, floor tile, ceiling tile, fireproofing and some wall materials. When these materials were intact and undisturbed, the risk was generally lower. When they cracked, crumbled or were disturbed by repairs, fibers could enter the air that staff and students breathed. Classrooms with water-damaged ceiling tiles, hallways with worn flooring and basements with old boilers were common areas of concern. If you worked in older schools, note the buildings, their approximate age and any visible damage or repair work you remember.

Custodians and maintenance staff often worked directly with the materials most likely to contain asbestos. They stripped and buffed old floors, repaired pipes, replaced ceiling tiles and tended boilers. These tasks could disturb materials repeatedly over many years, sometimes daily. Teachers and office staff were generally more likely to be exposed indirectly, through deteriorating materials or nearby repairs. If you worked in maintenance or custodial roles, describe your specific tasks, the equipment you used, such as floor buffers, and how often you did this work in each building. Night and summer work crews often did the heaviest projects.

A federal law known as the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act, or AHERA, requires schools to inspect their buildings for asbestos and keep management plans. These plans can show where asbestos was identified, its condition and any abatement or repair work done on it. School districts are generally required to make the plans available for review. Requesting them for the schools where you worked may help document the presence of asbestos. Combined with your employment history, these records can support a claim. Ask the district office how to view the plans for each building where you worked.

1. 1

   List each school where you worked, along with your role and your years of service there.

2. 2

   Request the AHERA asbestos management plans for those schools from the school district.

3. 3

   Describe maintenance or custodial tasks that involved floors, ceilings, pipes or boilers.

4. 4

   Gather employment records from the district to confirm your service dates and assignments.