Special Education doesn’t mean a child is dumb. It means they need help in some way. It might be physical or occupational therapy. I know lots of former Special Education students who are very sucessful adults including college grads. Special Education in the 60’s, 70’s, & 80’s was not a day care. But rather there were teachers who had a gift to help students most teachers in regular classrooms simply do not have. Mainstraming was a cruel HOAX.
Special ed today is a joke. It is a babysitting service and the teachers pawn off the students in the name of mainstreaming in an effort to lessen their class loads. At the same time the regular ed teachers aren’t trained to deal with this (because they’re not spec ed teachers) and the students fall behind. In my school, most of the special ed students are low income whose parents were special ed. They don’t care as long as their kids get free breakfasts and lunches.