D.C. Schools Trying New Approach to Spec. Ed. Cases

After tangling in litigation for close to a decade, the District of Columbia school system agreed in 2006 to work quickly to pare down a backlog of cases related to special education services it had failed to provide to students with disabilities.

Two years after the decision in the class action, the backlog of cases is still large, and growing. School district officials acknowledge they’ve missed most of the deadlines imposed in the Blackman-Jones consent decree , named for the plaintiffs in two cases that were ultimately merged.

But school officials and lawyers representing the plaintiffs have decided to put aside further legal action for now. Both sides say that despite delays and false starts, they have real hope they can create lasting changes for the 50,000-student district...