The Limitations of Federal Special Education Policy: The Role of Classroom Teachers in Determining Who Is Handicapped

A major principle of federal special education policy is assuring fairness in the identification and placement process. In a study of local implementation, such protections failed to occur consistently since the pivotal decision in the process continued to be the teacher's personal decision to initiate a referral. The limitations of federal special education policy are discussed in relation to both the difficulty of protecting students from inaccurate identification and those system-wide problems in current special education delivery patterns that may contribute to such difficulties.