HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania's special-education funding formula is under attack in a federal lawsuit that claims it shortchanges needy urban school districts.

A Pittsburgh-based legal advocacy group for the poor wants the state Education Department to revise the formula, which assumes that 16 percent of all students in each school district require special-education services.

Evalynn Welling of the Community Justice Project says districts with larger numbers of special-education students don't receive enough money.

U.S. District Judge Yvette Kane heard arguments Friday over whether the plaintiffs should have class-action status, but didn't immediately issue a ruling. The lawsuit was filed in 2006 on behalf of seven special education students in Reading and Lancaster.

ERIE — A former child care supervisor accused of duct-taping toddlers to a wall has been acquitted.The office of Judge Ernest DiSantis Jr. said Friday that an Erie County jury acquitted Keith Holbrook of endangering the welfare of children. His trial ended late Thursday.The 26-year-old Holbrook had been assistant director of the Little Wonders Day Care Center in November when he was accused of taping two three-year-olds to a wall. He was originally charged with simple assault, but those charges were dismissed.

HAZLETON — The Hazleton Area School Board will recommend closing swimming pools at four middle and elementary schools to keep tax increases for the district's Luzerne, Schuylkill and Carbon County property owners to a minimum.The high school pool used by the varsity swimming program would stay open.The subcommittee that worked on the spending plan in a budget work session Thursday says closing the pools would trim about $200,000.The resulting $105 million budget is scheduled for a vote in a special meeting of the full Hazleton Area board on June 27. That's just before the state-mandated deadline for adopting a 2008-2009 budget on June 30.