Asbestos in American Schools: What the 2026 Data Shows

When 17 families at the University of Montana reached an $850,000 settlement in December 2025 over asbestos exposure at a campus daycare, the facts were familiar but the timeline was striking. The discovery happened in 2018. The children were toddlers. The families waited seven years for resolution, knowing their children might not develop symptoms for decades more.

The University of Montana daycare is not an outlier. Asbestos remains present in an estimated 107,000 U.S. schools, primarily in buildings constructed during the era when the material was standard in insulation, ceiling tiles, floor coverings, and HVAC systems. A 1986 federal law requires schools to find it, document it, and manage it. How well that law works in practice depends heavily on whether parents know to ask.

How Asbestos Ended Up in Schools

Asbestos was widely used in U.S. construction from the 1930s through the late 1970s. Its fire resistance, insulating properties, and low cost made it the default choice for:

• Thermal insulation on pipes, boilers, and ducts
• Ceiling tiles and spray-applied surfacing
• Floor tiles and mastics
• Roofing materials and siding
• Cement products

School construction boomed in the same decades, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s. Most schools built before 1980 contain some asbestos. Buildings constructed between 1945 and 1975 are considered especially likely to have significant amounts.

The EPA banned most new uses of asbestos in building materials starting in the late 1970s, and a broader federal ban on ongoing chrysotile asbestos uses was finalized in 2024. But these actions addressed future use, not existing buildings. The asbestos installed in schools decades ago is still there, in varying conditions, in tens of thousands of buildings across the country.

What AHERA Requires

The Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA), passed by Congress in 1986, established federal requirements for managing asbestos in schools. The law applies to public school districts, non-profit private schools, charter schools, and religious schools. Administrative offices like board rooms and superintendent offices also qualify as “school buildings” under the law.

The core philosophy of AHERA is “manage in place.” Intact asbestos-containing materials are generally considered low risk and can be left alone as long as they are not disturbed. The law emphasizes regular monitoring, containment of damaged areas, and removal only when necessary, such as during renovations or when materials become friable (easily crumbled and releasing fibers).

Every school must designate an AHERA contact person who is responsible for the management plan and who handles parent and staff inquiries. This contact information must be publicly available.

Parent and Staff Rights Under AHERA

The law grants specific rights to parents, teachers, and school employees that most families never use.

Any parent, guardian, teacher, or school employee can request to see the school’s asbestos management plan, and the school is required to make it available within a reasonable time. The plan must include locations of asbestos-containing materials (often marked on blueprints), inspection dates, response actions taken, and surveillance records.

Schools must notify parents, teachers, and employees each year that the management plan exists and is available for review. In practice, this is often a line buried in a back-to-school packet. When schools conduct asbestos abatement, cleanup, or other major response actions, they are also required to notify affected parents and staff.

Parents who believe their school is out of compliance can file complaints with state education or environmental agencies. Enforcement varies significantly by state.

Where Compliance Breaks Down

AHERA is a federal law, but enforcement is delegated to states and relies heavily on self-reporting by school districts. Several weak points have emerged over the law’s 40-year history.

State oversight is inconsistent. States vary widely in how aggressively they inspect schools, enforce plan requirements, and respond to complaints. Some states run dedicated asbestos programs. Others rely on federal EPA enforcement, which is stretched thin across the entire country.

Budget pressure drives shortcuts. School districts under financial strain sometimes delay re-inspections, fail to update management plans, or skip staff training. These shortcuts are often invisible until a disturbance event makes them visible.

The highest-risk moments for asbestos exposure in schools occur during construction, renovation, and maintenance work. AHERA requires that these activities follow specific protocols, but contractors occasionally bypass them, unaware of asbestos in the materials they are disturbing.

Management plans written in the 1980s or 1990s may also no longer reflect current conditions. Damaged materials, new construction, or changes in occupancy can invalidate older plans, but updates are not always done on schedule.

The University of Montana case illustrates several of these failure points. Asbestos was initially identified in December 2018 on the second floor of McGill Hall, which housed a childcare center. An area was sealed, but more thorough testing in January 2019 found loose fibers in the HVAC system, on surfaces, on children’s toys, and on tables in both McGill and Craighead Halls. The daycare was relocated the next day, and the university spent $700,000 on remediation.

The 17 families of exposed children sued in May 2020. The settlement was finalized in December 2025 and reported publicly in January 2026. The children, who were toddlers at the time of exposure, are now in middle school. Because asbestos-related diseases have latency periods of 20 to 60 years, whether the exposure will cause illness will not be known for decades.

The Health Stakes

Children may be particularly vulnerable to asbestos exposure. Their lungs are still developing, they breathe at faster rates relative to body size, and they have more years ahead of them for latent diseases to develop.

Mesothelioma, the rarest and most specifically asbestos-linked cancer, has a latency period typically between 20 and 60 years. A child exposed at age 5 may not develop symptoms until their 40s, 50s, or 60s. The 3,000 annual mesothelioma cases currently diagnosed in the United States reflect exposures that occurred decades ago, often in childhood or early adulthood.

There is no medical test that can confirm past asbestos exposure in children or predict who will develop disease. Monitoring consists of regular physical examinations, chest imaging when symptoms arise, and documentation of exposure for future reference.

What Parents Can Do

The practical steps available to parents are limited but meaningful:

1. Request the management plan. Every parent has the right to review their school’s asbestos management plan. Reading it is the fastest way to know what is present in the building, where, and how recently it has been inspected.

2. Ask about recent renovations. Construction, HVAC work, roof repairs, and floor replacements are the highest-risk moments. Ask whether asbestos abatement protocols were followed and whether air testing was done after the work.

3. Monitor for unusual conditions. Water damage, cracked ceiling tiles, exposed insulation, and deterioration of floor tiles can release asbestos fibers from materials that would otherwise be safe. Report these conditions to the school administration.

4. Document exposure concerns. If you believe your child may have been exposed, document the circumstances, keep copies of any communications with the school, and discuss the exposure with your child’s pediatrician. Records become valuable if symptoms emerge years later.

5. Know where to complain. State education agencies and state environmental departments handle AHERA complaints. The EPA regional office for your area can also accept complaints when state enforcement is inadequate.