ABSTRACT
Placement decisions and policy options are informed by few reliable data that explain how placement is related to the desired outcomes of education or treatment. A. O. Hirschman’s economic analysis of late 20th-century views of the welfare state suggested answers consistent with the history of special education since the early 1960s and relevant to controversies of the 1990s regarding the radical restructuring of special education. In the case of the social welfare programs of government, of which special education is a pertinent example, unhappiness with services may arise from two groups: those who pay for the services and those who are the intended beneficiaries. Some of the critical features of special education practices were mandated by the law in advance of actual knowledge of how to satisfy its requirements, with individualized education plans, and placement in the least restrictive environment being prime examples.
