After the Burd assault, it took a visit to the district by the state education secretary to underscore that special-education students who seriously hurt someone or are caught with a weapon or drugs can be sent immediately to a disciplinary school for 45 days. District chief Paul Vallas said he had thought they could not be moved immediately.

Most special-education students can also be suspended for as many as 15 school days each academic year. The law requires a parent's permission or state approval to suspend or transfer mentally retarded students.

"The law creates a dual disciplinary system," said Jack Stollsteimer, a former assistant U.S. attorney who took the state-funded safe-schools job in Philadelphia a year ago. "It is very confusing even for lawyers to understand."

Questions abound.

When can a special-education student be transferred? Does it matter whether the child is mentally retarded? When must a hearing be held? Can a child be disciplined if the behavior is a byproduct of a disability?

"The issue of special education throws a huge, huge wrench into the school discipline process," said Ken Trump, president of National School Safety & Security Services, a Cleveland consulting firm.

Special-education advocates say schools fail the students by not providing the right services, Trump said. Others argue that special education has become such a "quagmire" that students are not being adequately disciplined, that they're "given many free passes," he added.

"The truth is somewhere in between," Trump said.

While the laws add a layer to the process, it is a myth that special-education students can't be disciplined, said Len Reiser, codirector of the nonprofit Education Law Center.

"Any time you have a complicated set of rules, some people will respond by saying: 'I just can't deal with that.' "

The laws are needed to protect the rights of special-education students, he said.

Michael Lerner, who heads the principals' union, said he understood that, but added: "I also understand the need to protect the rights of children who . . . are not discipline cases, who are there for an education."

Poor tracking leads to fallout

"Many of the students who are receiving special-education services understand the regs quite well and tell the teachers, 'You can't suspend me or do anything to me. I'm a special-education student,' " said Jerry Jordan, vice president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. "It's a huge problem."

Harvey Rice, who monitored violence in city schools for four years as safe-schools advocate, said discipline issues involving special-education students arose "often enough that I knew there was a problem."

Ellen Green-Ceisler, who for months studied the district's disciplinary system and issued a highly critical report in March, said the failure to provide services to special-education students played a key role in school violence. It was one of the reasons staff cited to explain why four out of five students who committed serious offenses were not transferred to disciplinary schools.

Green-Ceisler and Rice said the district couldn't tell them how often discipline of special-education students was halted because their plans were not followed.

"By not tracking this information, they can't tell you how big the problem is," Green-Ceisler complained.

Brenda B. Taylor, an associate superintendent who oversees special education, said she was not hearing concerns from regional administrators.