Still Fighting the Last War

The battle to reform special education is being lost.

By Kalman R. Hettleman

As chronicled in almost every recent issue of this newspaper, the war to improve special education is being lost on many fronts. The pending congressional reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act—the basic legal framework for services to students with disabilities—is already bogged down in battles over such issues as funding, paperwork requirements, testing, inclusion, and discipline. Many state and local school systems, particularly large urban districts, have been mired for years in lawsuits alleging failure to comply with federal mandates.

Reform won't be easy, or it would have happened by now. A telltale case study is that of the Baltimore public school system. Its special education struggles—including progress in some areas, but dismal failure in others—may be instructive to school districts elsewhere dealing with the same complex problems.

The Baltimore lessons are contained in a study I conducted last year, which was published in February 2002 as part of the Abell Foundation report "Still Getting It Wrong." Baltimore has drawn national attention for its progress in general education over the past several years. Yet its special education program, despite massive efforts and prolonged U.S. District Court supervision since the mid-1980s, is still squandering too much time and money on paperwork and bureaucracy at the...