ABSTRACT
The process by which public schools identify students as learning disabled often appears to be confusing, unfair, and logically inconsistent. In fact, G. Reid Lyon of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development has suggested that the field of learning disabilities is a sociological sponge whose purpose has been and is to clean up the spills of general education. Research indicates that substantial proportions of school-identified students with learning disability (LD) fail to meet state or federal eligibility criteria (Lyon, 1996; MacMillan, Gresham, & Bocian, 1998; Shaywitz, Shaywitz, Fletcher, & Escobar, 1990; Shepard, Smith, & Vojir, 1983). In discussing this situation, MacMillan and Speece (1999) noted that although this finding is not in and of itself surprising, the magnitude of the percentage of school-identified LD students who fail to meet eligibility criteria ranged from 52 to 70%.
