Md. Seeks Role In Special-Ed For Baltimore

Grasmick refused to comment on whether she would be interested in joining Ehrlich's ticket next year. She said the lawsuit has dragged on for so long that it has outlasted multiple governors, mayors and superintendents. "Our focus should not be on, 'Is this a political situation?' " she said. "Our focus ought to be, 'What's happening to our children?' "

U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis recently ordered the state agency, city schools and other parties in the case to assess the management of special education programs. The state agency responded last week with a proposal to hire nine experts to help administer special education. The plan would cost $1.4 million annually, state officials said, and would aim to end court oversight within five years.

The state argued that the city special-ed program is in disarray, with rock-bottom test scores. Carol Ann Baglin, an assistant state superintendent, said a sampling of records showed service disruptions within the past year for at least three-fifths of Baltimore's disabled students.

"Children should be able to get to school," state attorneys wrote in a court brief, "and when they arrive at school all the staff needed to teach them should be there and qualified to do so."

Last week, the state suggested that the only remedy other than its intervention would be the appointment of a receiver to administer special education. Yesterday, state attorneys wrote that they were not seeking a takeover, only a court-ordered intervention.

But attorneys for the city schools argued that the court should not give the state a broader role. "Courts are and should be reluctant to take control of school district management and operations away from local authorities," the Baltimore attorneys argued last week. Yesterday, they added that "takeover proposals ignore the state's chronic and unconstitutional underfunding" of Baltimore schools.

Staff writer John Wagner contributed to this report.