The Frankel Law Firm Sues New York City Department of Education Over Severe Lead Poisoning of Nonverbal 5-Year-Old in District 75 Classroom

Suit alleges the DOE placed a developmentally delayed child in a classroom it never tested, in a building it knew contained lead paint; new Gothamist analysis finds special education classrooms inspected at half the rate of general education classrooms

BRONX, N.Y., Aug. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The Frankel Law Firm PLLC has filed suit in Supreme Court, Bronx County against the New York City Department of Education on behalf of a Bronx mother whose five-year-old son, a nonverbal child with autism, was severely lead poisoned in the District 75 classroom the DOE assigned him to.

According to the allegations of the complaint, in September 2025, the DOE placed the child in Classroom 551 on the fifth floor of Building X046 in the Bronx, home to P.S. 46 and the District 75 program known as The Bronx School for Continuous Learners. He attended approximately thirty hours a week.

The complaint alleges that by the winter, his mother had noticed a dramatic change: a child who had been affectionate and upbeat was now aggressive, hyperactive, and withdrawn. He had begun chewing walls at home; his teachers reported the same behavior at school. On January 28, 2026, a pediatrician tested his blood and found severe lead poisoning - a medical emergency requiring immediate hospitalization.

He spent six days in the hospital undergoing chelation therapy. After his discharge, his lead level rose again, as lead stored in his bones leached back into his bloodstream.

The classroom the DOE never tested.

According to the complaint, on February 5, 2026, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene tested 48 surfaces in Classroom 551. Sixteen were positive for lead-based paint at or above the legal action level, all of them in deteriorating condition. Readings on closet walls and on classroom walls, baseboards, moldings, and chair rails registered 9.9 mg/cm² - the testing instrument's maximum, and well above the action level. A Commissioner of Health Order to Abate Nuisance was issued the following day.

DOHMH also tested the family's home, built within the last decade. All testing came back below threshold levels.

The complaint alleges the DOE had known since 2019 that Building X046 contained lead-based paint. That summer, following reporting by WNYC/Gothamist, the DOE inspected six rooms in the building and found lead-based paint in both of the rooms with deteriorated paint. Every room it inspected was on the first or second floor. Classroom 551 appears nowhere in the DOE's published Summer 2019 dataset.

A citywide pattern.

A Gothamist analysis published today found that Classroom 551 had never been inspected under the DOE's post-2019 inspection regime, and that not a single classroom at The Bronx School for Continuous Learners received a lead-paint inspection in 2025. Citywide, Gothamist found that just 10 percent of classrooms serving elementary students with disabilities received at least one inspection in 2025, compared with 20 percent of general education elementary classrooms.

"The DOE knows that its District 75 student population needs more protection, not less," said Reuven S. Frankel of The Frankel Law Firm PLLC, counsel to the family. "Yet the children most likely to put paint in their mouths are the children whose classrooms are least likely to be checked. This should be basic. These kids should be in a lead-free environment."

"No parent should have to worry that sending their young child to school would leave him severely lead poisoned", Frankel added.

The Frankel Law Firm's complaint pleads three causes of action sounding in negligence and seeks compensatory damages to be determined by a jury. The New York City Department of Education has not yet answered.

Consistent with New York court rules governing the omission of confidential personal information from court filings, the child is identified in the complaint only by his initials.

About The Frankel Law Firm PLLC

Since 1978, The Frankel Law Firm has represented lead-poisoned children and their families throughout New York. Founder Michael Stewart Frankel, a pioneer of childhood lead poisoning litigation in New York, was attorney of record on landmark cases including Juarez v. Wavecrest Management Team Ltd., 88 NY2d 628 (1996), which established landlords' regulatory liability for childhood lead poisoning under New York City Local Law 1, and Munoz v. Puretz, 301 AD2d 382 (1st Dept 2003), which extended that liability to prenatal lead exposure. These decisions fundamentally strengthened protections for New York's most vulnerable residents, and the firm has recovered millions of dollars for affected families.

The firm represents families in lead poisoning cases throughout the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, and the greater New York metropolitan area, including cases involving NYCHA properties and private landlords.

The firm is located at 305 Broadway, 7th Floor, New York, New York 10007. For media inquiries, contact Reuven S. Frankel at (212) 888-5100 or [email protected]. 

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SOURCE THE FRANKEL LAW FIRM