On October 3. 2005, the Baltimore Sun published an article about a five-year "breakdown" in the provision of appropriate services to students with special needs in Baltimore’s public schools. Reportedly, throngs of psychologists, social workers, and speech and language pathologists had been leaving local school districts since 2000, because the city’s "child study team model" was fraught with excessive and restrictive administrative burdens. Allegedly, the time spent preparing for meetings and completing follow-up paperwork significantly limited the time and ability of the clinicians to directly serve students with special needs.
Corporal Punishment Up In New York Schools
On September 24, 2005, Associated Press writer Michael Gormley reported a significant rise in formal corporal punishment complaints in New York public schools over the past five years. Specifically, complaints more than doubled over that time period, with 4,223 accusations in 2004 alone. At the same time, there has also been an increase in the number of school districts that failed to file the required semiannual reports detailing corporal punishment allegations.
