Students in special education programs can have widely divergent experiences. For some, special education amounts to a dumping ground where schools unload their problem students, while for others, it provides access to services and accommodations that drastically improve chances of succeeding in school and beyond. "Distinguishing Disability" argues that this inequity in treatment is directly linked to the disparity in resources possessed by the students parents.
Since the mid-1970s, federal law has empowered parents of public school children to intervene in virtually every aspect of...