Accessibility problems at six Lawrence elementary schools will be assessed by outside professionals under an agreement designed to settle a federal civil rights complaint, a district official said Wednesday.

Evaluations of Prairie Park, Deerfield, Quail Run, Langston Hughes, Sunflower and Cordley schools are expected to be finished by the end of January. A plan for addressing all shortcomings on accessibility for people with disabilities at the half-dozen schools must be submitted by March 1 to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.

“Basically, what we’re doing is looking at these schools to determine if compliance measures need to be taken,” said Rick Gammill, the district’s director of special operations, transportation and safety.

He said the agreement between the district and federal government authorized inspections of the schools by Independence Inc., a Lawrence organization that advocates for accessible communities.

Independence Inc. will concentrate on accessibility of school classrooms, restrooms, playground equipment and parking lots, Gammill said.

The district’s accessibility-improvement plan is subject to approval by the Education Department.

“If there are any compliance issues that need to be resolved, we’ll certainly do that,” Gammill said.

The agreement also indicates the district must include a notice of nondiscrimination in all faculty and student handbooks, applications, brochures, catalogs and schedules.

Action by the district was precipitated by a complaint filed May 1 by Brent Garner, of Lawrence. He wasn’t available for comment Wednesday.

Garner, the parent of a child with a disability, alleged in the complaint that Cordley didn’t comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Garner lives in the Deerfield School attendance area, but his daughter had enrolled at Centennial School as a transfer student. When it became clear the school board would vote to close Centennial in late May, Garner submitted his ADA complaint about Cordley. The school board assigned about half of Centennial’s students to Cordley.

“Centennial is ADA-compliant,” Garner said at the time. “Cordley, on the other hand, is in major violation.”

Specifically, Garner charged that second-floor classrooms at Cordley where his daughter would attend class were accessible only by stairs. His daughter should have use of an elevator at Cordley, he said.

In July, federal inspectors visited Cordley, 1837 Vt.

Garner, who ran for Lawrence school board on a platform that included opposition to elementary school consolidation, filed an amended complaint with the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights alleging retaliation by district administrators. He based that assertion on the district’s denial of a request to transfer his daughter to Sunflower School.

The agreement signed by Supt. Randy Weseman didn’t address the retaliation issue, but indicated the government’s investigation would be reopened if the district didn’t follow through on accessibility improvements at the schools.