Students at an Adelaide primary school have been moved from a classroom where dust contaminated with lead fell from a ceiling.
Black dust falling from the ceiling was reported earlier this month by a teacher at East Marden Primary School, in Adelaide's eastern suburbs.
Students who had been in the classroom were moved to the school gym.
Testing revealed the dust contained lead.
A letter to parents last week said remediation work was underway and that the school was advised that any risk to students from exposure was very low.
It said it was "not uncommon to find lead in ceiling dust of old buildings".
"Ceiling dust can move into rooms below as a result of wind, ageing buildings or renovations and building works," the letter from principal Julie James said.
Testing in two other buildings built in the 1960s — a block of classrooms and the canteen — found no signs of lead, but the canteen is still closed until remediation work is completed.
Complaints about communication
A parent at the school wrote to the ABC saying she was concerned about the lack of communication from the school in the three weeks between the discovery of the dust and the letter seen by the ABC.
"I'm frustrated, scared and angry," the mother wrote.
Department for Education chief operating officer Ben Temperly said there had been regular reporting to parents about the issue since it was discovered.
"We've done the comprehensive testing through some environmental consultants, we've engaged with SA Health and the specialists there and the consensus is, whilst this is certainly an issue that needs to be remediated, it presents a low risk to the long-term health of students but also staff in the school," he said.
The ABC was also contacted by a person saying two pregnant teachers had not been informed about the lead discovery.
Mr Temperly said the department had only heard about the complaint through SA Health yesterday.
He said work was underway to fix the dust problem "as quickly as possible".
"We understand that parents will have concerns and we sought to connect parents to advise either from SA Health or we've recommended that parents, if they have ongoing concerns, talk to their GP," he said.
Too long to identify problem
The school is undergoing a $7.5 million state government-funded upgrade following a surge in enrolments over the past decade.
The Sapphire building where the lead dust was discovered was renovated in 2018.
Parent Lisa Cleghorn's son was in the contaminated classroom and said the problem could have been identified sooner.
"I'm not happy at all, no," she said.
"I'd like to understand if the department knew there was lead in that ceiling.
"They spent $1 million refurbishing that building for a STEM facility a few years back so I feel that it must have been noticed during that process."
Students are expected to move from the gym to another building in term 3.
