If the school had done its job, Footman, a ninth-grade special-education student with a long history of disruptive behavior and emotional problems, would have been miles away at a disciplinary school, as he had agreed three months earlier, getting help to control his anger.

Instead, he was cutting class and roaming the halls when another student pushed Burd, toppling the algebra teacher into Footman. The teen reacted by punching Burd - a man he didn't even know - three times in the face, causing him to fall and break his neck.

The Footman case points to serious and common lapses in the Philadelphia School District's handling of special-education students who can become violent and disruptive, tormenting teachers, staff and fellow students.

One student with serious emotional problems can demand almost all of a teacher's class time - even cause havoc throughout a school, as did Footman, now 15.

As a group, special-education students are responsible for an inordinate number of assaults on teachers and other school staff. While just 14 percent of the city's school enrollment, they committed 43 percent of the 7,547 assaults on staff during the last five years, district statistics show - a fact that stuns many of those who work in the schools daily.

Once assaults occur, school officials often discover that they have failed to provide these students the help they have been promised. If those services had been made available, experts say, some of those assaults might not have occurred.

And to compound the district's violence problem, once officials discover their failure to provide services, they often stop any attempts to discipline the students.

"To see a young person with needs that aren't being met by the special-education system end up arrested and in the juvenile-justice system is not at all uncommon," said Rhonda McKitten, director of the Defender Association of Philadelphia's special-education project.

Germantown High paid scant attention to Footman despite a school career riddled with warning signs, from temper tantrums and fights in kindergarten to a death threat against a teacher and an assault on an administrator in middle school.

The school not only failed to complete the paperwork to transfer him, but it also neglected to provide him with all the help called for in his special-education plan. It never updated that plan as required by law, and suspended Footman more days than allowed for special-education students, court records and interviews show.

Gregory Thornton, the district's chief academic officer, said he saw no problems with the implementation of plans for special-education students. "In isolated cases, when brought to our attention, we go in and make the corrections," he said.

"It would be fair to say we have opportunities for improvement throughout the entire district - until we are 100 percent compliant and there are no cases like this," he added, referring to Footman. Federal privacy law prevented him from discussing details.

But the lapses did not surprise some who are familiar with the district's disciplinary system.

After a serious incident in a city school, it is common to find out the student had a plan - like Footman's - that was disregarded, said Michael D. Basch, a lawyer with the firm Fine, Kaplan & Black who has represented special-education students for 17 years.

"They don't know how to handle students with emotional issues and students with attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder who are acting out," Basch said.

Perceptions of legal 'quagmire'

A state review of 106 student plans from two of 12 regions in the Philadelphia School District found that the district provided services 88 percent of the time - a rate better than the state average. A recent federal report based on information supplied by the district put compliance at 98 percent.

But parents say that services across the district are uneven, and that the deficit-ridden district needs more staff.

State and federal law say special-education students can't be disciplined for behavior that stems from their disability, except in serious cases.