A federal judge yesterday found Baltimore schools Superintendent Walter G. Amprey in contempt of court for disobeying an order requiring the school system to report formally on shortcomings in educating disabled children.
Sharply rebuking Dr. Amprey for "woefully inadequate" responses to a Sept. 8 court order, U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis also imposed a $100-a-day fine on the school system until it complies.
"This federal court can no longer allow the disabled students of Baltimore City to be deprived of their rights," Judge Garbis said. "The court has been treated with contempt. There has been and continues to be no compliance with the orders."
Judge Garbis had ordered Dr. Amprey last week to appear for yesterday's contempt hearing after the schools chief failed to provide a complete quarterly report on the status of the city's estimated 18,000 special education cases by the Oct. 24 deadline.
On that date, Dr. Amprey, who had asked for no extension, sent an incomplete report and said he could not verify its accuracy because not all schools had provided necessary data.
The superintendent also told the court that its data was unreliable because of the district's failure to adequately train school-based staff in the use of a new $6 million computer system linking headquarters and schools.
Judge Garbis cited Dr. Amprey for civil contempt but left open the possibility of citing him for criminal contempt, which implies "willful disregard" of the court-imposed obligations.
Before deciding on the criminal contempt, the judge said, he would consider more evidence from the plaintiff, the Maryland Disability Law Center, a Baltimore-based advocacy group.
Steven Ney, an attorney for the law center, said he viewed yesterday's decision as a significant victory for the law center and for the city's special education students.
He called the quarterly reports critical to identifying and correcting shortcomings in special education. The city has failed to produce those reports -- originally required under a 1988 consent decree.
"I think the point is that [Judge Garbis] is sending a clear message that it's not going to be business as usual anymore in Baltimore City to be cavalier about how a court order is treated," Mr. Ney said. "If you don't know how many kids are not being served, who is being served, how can you figure out what to do about it?"
The legal battle centers on the city's consistent failure to comply with federal laws governing the length of time handicapped students must wait for formal evaluations and services, including speech and physical therapy, psychological counseling and enrollment in special education classes.
Federal law requires that the city assess a child's needs within 45 days of referral and place a child within 30 days of development of an "Individual Education Plan."
The city has consistently failed to meet both requirements, forcing some students to go without services and others to wait more than a year for services.
Last spring, the school system admitted -- for the first time -- widespread failings in special education programs. At the same time, the court created a special education oversight team -- composed of state Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick, Dr. Amprey and Mark Mlawer, of the disability law center -- which has met weekly since then.
Yesterday, Dr. Amprey told the judge: "I would never knowingly, willfully violate a court order. It's not part of what I do." But Judge Garbis pointedly questioned Dr. Amprey about his testimony.
When Dr. Amprey said he had not seen the court order for weeks after it was issued, Judge Garbis snapped: "Dr. Amprey, this court issued an order to you Sept. 8, and you're telling me you haven't seen it to this day?"
Dr. Amprey said he did not know of the Sept. 8 order until an Oct. 17 meeting of the court-appointed special education oversight team.
The judge also chastised Dr. Amprey for failing to honor his agreement to send employees throughout the school system a memo detailing the reporting requirements of the court order.
The memos were not sent out until Friday, after the city had missed the deadline.
"The letter was held up in the mail room due to a snafu and a problem," Dr. Amprey said.
But the judge noted that Dr. Amprey had said in a sworn affidavit that the memos had been sent out Oct. 3.
Dr. Amprey agreed to provide complete and accurate reports on special education cases within 60 days.