ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the special schools which received twenty-eight of the study population children as pupils, through the interviews with the ten head teachers involved. It discusses how heads perceive their role at the end of the decision-making process of referral and assessment, when they finally decide to admit a child into their school, and how they regard the roles of the other professional personnel and the parents. The heads were also asked what they thought the function of their school was – in terms of what 'special' characteristics they could offer that ordinary schools could not, and their views on the specific problems of immigrant children were ascertained. Head teachers' comments on the part they played in the decisions made on the study population children are recorded in the form of case studies. But children felt that if parental involvement in ordinary education was difficult, it was doubly difficult to achieve in special education.
