A recent asbestos leak has led school officials to close Maiden Choice School in Arbutus, which has 120 students with special needs, for the rest of the week.

The leak apparently occurred when workers broke through a hallway wall as part of a $2 million maintenance project at the 51-year-old school Thursday night, said Douglas J. Neilson, a school system spokesman.

After a weekend cleanup, tests indicated asbestos levels in the hallway are back below federal standards, Neilson said. But the school will remain closed so testing can be done throughout the building and asbestos elsewhere in the school removed.

"We don't want to expose the children to anything," said Neilson, who said that only prolonged exposure to elevated levels of asbestos causes health problems. Neilson described the leak as minor.

Students have not been to the Shelbourne Road school since Thursday. They did not go to school Friday because teachers held scheduled conferences with parents by phone, Neilson said. And the school was closed yesterday for testing and cleanup.

Nancy Spurrier, the treasurer of Maiden Choice's PTA, said she is not worried. "I'm not concerned about it at all. In fact, I would have sent my daughter to school today," she said yesterday. The system will "take care of it," she added.

Students at Maiden Choice - some of whom can't walk or talk - have major disabilities. The school has students from preschool age to 21 years old, Spurrier said. The school's principal could not be reached.

Since September, the school has been prepped for work on its sprinkler system and other utilities. The first order of business has been removing asbestos, a $200,000 effort taking place on nights and weekends.

It was preparations for this asbestos abatement, Neilson said, that apparently led to the accidental leak. Neilson said a dislodged cinderblock hit insulation tape made out of asbestos, spilling asbestos debris.

A crew that was going to remove asbestos from the area Saturday morning detected the spill upon beginning work. Neilson said the crew detected asbestos levels higher than federal standards, but he did not know how much higher.

Teachers and staff worked at the school Friday. "For anybody in the building, it is a scary proposition," said Mark Beytin, president of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County, who criticized officials for waiting until yesterday to notify teachers.

Beytin questioned why the work crew didn't immediately call for testing after knocking down a cinderblock that struck asbestos. But Neilson said the workers "didn't realize what they had done."