Special education used to be a place—sometimes a separate
school, more often a classroom down the hall where students
labeled as such disappeared for hours at a time, out of sight
and out of mind for the typical classroom teacher. That's still
sometimes the case, but increasingly, special education is front
and center in the regular education classroom, and the
population of students with individualized education plans has
shifted away from those considered learning disabled. Fewer
students have been diagnosed with learning disabilities, but
more students are being diagnosed with autism. "You're not
sending a child somewhere when you provide special ed. You're
providing them a service," says Mary Watson, director of the
Exceptional Child Division in the North Carolina Department of
Education. "Special education is not a place; special education
is individualized instruction with supports and services."
Federal data from 2008, the latest figures available, show that
11 percent of students, or about 6.7 million