ABSTRACT
Special educational needs is a subject which provokes some of the strongest passions in education. The debate between the relative merits of special schools and mainstream education has raged for decades, but the passions of their respective advocates grow ever stronger. The government has attempted to walk this tightrope by publishing several policy statements on the subject, which have sought to encourage more mainstream provision, while retaining special schools and developing specialist units in mainstream schools. But many teachers believe that the balance has not yet been properly struck.
