Baltimore Special-Ed Oversight Head Retires

See this interesting article in the Baltimore Sun. It begins:

Three years ago, amid great fanfare, a federal judge ordered a team of state managers to oversee special education in the Baltimore schools, a move that many viewed as a partial state takeover without the controversial title.

Today, the head of that management team, Harry Fogle, is retiring and, as the state scales back on its intervention, he is not being replaced.

The three parties in a quarter-century-old lawsuit agree that services to students with disabilities have improved since 2005, when the state and the city were openly sparring for control of Baltimore's schools amid a gubernatorial campaign.

But deep-seated problems in the city's special-education program remain, and the
system has a long way to go before it is freed from a quarter-century-old lawsuit. And, as state education officials reduce the number of managers in the city - there will be four full time next academic year, down from eight - they worry that the rapid pace of change under schools chief Andres Alonso might result in new problems with special education.