At least 12 D.C. public schools started this year without a working elevator

A teacher carried up the stairs, a kindergartner who couldn't get to class

When the elevator at Cleveland Elementary School broke down this fall, Carolyn Diaz had a choice: stay on the ground floor and lose access to her students, or let her colleagues carry her. She chose the latter. Three of her coworkers formed what the staff named "Operation Human Elevator," hauling Diaz, who uses a wheelchair, up and down the stairs so the ESL teacher and reading interventionist could do her job.

"We called it Operation Human Elevator, but it was not a joke," Diaz testified before D.C. Council members last week. "It was something that my colleagues and I organized ourselves because no workable alternative has ever been provided to me."

Diaz's account is not a one-school anomaly. It is a window into a citywide maintenance failure that the D.C. government has documented, discussed, and largely failed to fix for years. This week, the details of an October 8 Council oversight hearing became public through reporting by WJLA/7News, The Washington Post, and Hoodline, and they are not flattering to city agencies.

The numbers the District submitted to the Council

D.C. Public Schools started the 2026-27 school year with at least 12 schools lacking working elevators, according to testimony cited at the October 8 hearing. That is the count at the start of the year. The Washington Post, citing Department of General Services data, reported that 12 elevators or wheelchair lifts were broken across 11 DCPS buildings when students returned in August 2026, leaving five of those schools with zero functioning elevators at all.

DCPS maintains a total portfolio of 204 passenger elevators and wheelchair lifts, according to DGS data. Against that backdrop, the maintenance numbers are striking. During fiscal year 2026, DGS received 319 elevator-related maintenance requests from DCPS alone. Across its entire portfolio of government buildings, the agency received 639.

Speed is the sharpest point of contention. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson cited historical maintenance data showing school elevator repair work orders took an average of 36 days to complete. That figure measures the time needed to close a work order, not necessarily how long an elevator was unusable. In other words, 36 days is a floor, not a ceiling.

At Cleveland Elementary, the record is worse. Diaz said that since she started working at the school in August 2023, the elevator has been out of service for an estimated four to five months combined, and 35 elevator maintenance work orders have been submitted during that time.

What Diaz lost while the elevator sat broken

Diaz said Cleveland's elevator has repeatedly broken down since she arrived at the school and was out for the first weeks of the current school year, preventing her from working directly with some kindergarten students. "I didn't see my kindergarten students for the first two weeks of school," she told council members. "I was effectively a stranger to them in week three when the elevator miraculously started to work."

The impacts at Cleveland go beyond one teacher. A student who fractured her ankle had to climb the stairs one step at a time while using crutches because the elevator was unavailable. Another fourth-grade student missed additional days of school after being hospitalized because his doctor had instructed him not to climb the stairs to his fourth-floor classroom. Another Cleveland teacher, Steven Varhall, testified that staff created a group chat known as the "Human Elevator" to coordinate help when Diaz needed to move between floors. He also described a kindergarten graduation where a father who uses a wheelchair had to be carried upstairs because the elevator was unavailable.

The school's story is receiving more attention now, but the repairs are not moving fast. A spokesperson for the Department of General Services said Cleveland is expected to receive a replacement elevator, but the project is not anticipated to be completed until fall 2027. That is a full year away.

Why repairs take so long, according to DGS

The Department of General Services is the agency responsible for maintaining elevators across DCPS buildings. It did not dispute the outage numbers at the hearing. Instead, it cited structural constraints. DGS officials said specific cases of repeated failure need individual examination to determine the cause, since repair delays can stem from aging equipment, limited replacement-part availability, contractor capacity, and funding.

The agency's own published FAQ, updated in February 2026, spells out the timelines. Repair timelines are influenced by the age of the elevator and the availability of required components. Newer systems generally allow for faster repairs, while older units may require extended timelines due to limited part availability or discontinued components. For older systems, some parts may no longer be manufactured. When a component must be custom produced by the manufacturer, the timeline can extend to 4 to 12 weeks.

In a statement released October 15, DGS said it is working to fix the situation. "DGS is taking proactive steps to improve elevator reliability across DC Public Schools by expanding our vendor network, increasing repair capacity, and working to restore service as quickly as possible," the agency said. That statement came after a week of press inquiries following the hearing, not before.

In its full statement, D.C. Public Schools said it "takes accessibility for students, educators, and visitors seriously." DCPS said it has committed to supporting schools with programming changes, such as relocating classes to accessible areas, when substantial elevator work or parts are pending. Cleveland Elementary's Carolyn Diaz, who testified under oath, said no such workable alternative was ever provided to her.

A pattern the Council has seen before

The October 8 hearing was a formal oversight proceeding, not an emergency session. That distinction matters. The Council was not reacting to a new crisis; it was reviewing a chronic one. With hundreds of maintenance requests across the District, questions are growing about why repairs can take weeks, why some elevators break down shortly after being fixed, and what is being done to prevent future failures.

Council Chairman Mendelson questioned why some school elevators appear to break down again shortly after repairs are completed and challenged officials on maintenance practices, communication with families, and accountability for prolonged outages.

The city also has a separate, ongoing legal exposure on related disability-access issues in schools. The Children's Law Center is litigating a class-action case on behalf of roughly 4,000 families of children with disabilities over accessible transportation. On January 16, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued its decision certifying that case as a class action. Elevator access is a distinct legal question, but federal courts are already watching how D.C. handles disability accommodation in its schools.

The Americans with Disabilities Act does require public agencies to keep accessible routes operational. Courts and the Department of Justice have interpreted "reasonable time" for repairs as days, not weeks, when an elevator is the only accessible path. The average 36-day repair closure time that Mendelson cited at the hearing sits well outside that standard, at least in cases where no alternative accessible route exists.

What D.C. Residents Should Watch

The October 20 Council meetings are the next scheduled legislative session, according to the D.C. Council website. Whether elevator accountability surfaces again on that agenda will signal how seriously the current Council intends to press DGS before the next mayor takes office in January.

Cleveland Elementary's replacement elevator is the most concrete near-term test. DGS has committed to a replacement, but the target date is fall 2027. If parts delays or contracting problems push that further, Carolyn Diaz will face the same choice next August that she faced this one.

The five schools that began the year with zero working elevators are worth tracking by name. The Washington Post and WJLA have reported the aggregate numbers; the individual schools have not all been publicly identified. Parents at any school with a single elevator and students or staff who use wheelchairs should request the current work-order status from DGS directly at dgs.dc.gov.

Watch DGS's vendor network expansion. The agency says it is adding contractors to speed repairs. Whether that pledge produces a measurable reduction in the average 36-day closure time by the end of fiscal year 2027 is the metric that will matter most.

On the morning of Carolyn Diaz's kindergarten graduation story, the father who uses a wheelchair was carried up a flight of stairs by volunteers so he could watch his daughter receive her diploma.

Sources: WJLA/7News | The Washington Post | Hoodline | WUSA9/Yahoo News | DGS Elevator FAQs (February 2026) | D.C. Council | Children's Law Center