Education and disabilityINTRODUCTIONThe importance of education for all children, especially those with disabilities and limited social and economic opportunities, is indisputable. Indeed, the special education system has given children with disabilities greater access to public education. In addition to this, the special education system provided them with an effective framework for their education and allowed the institutions involved to identify children with disabilities more quickly. In turn, this promotes greater inclusion of children with disabilities alongside their non-disabled peers. Despite this progress, however, many obstacles remain, including delays in providing services for children with disabilities, as well as regulatory and financial hurdles that complicate the program for everyone involved. Improving the system requires better ways to understand and measure both ends of the special education continuum—that is, the special education services children need and receive, and the academic outcomes these students achieve. BACKGROUND The literatures speak of the dramatic shift from exclusion to inclusion in US legislation governing the education of children with disabilities. Before the ratification of the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) in 1975, it was estimated that only one in five Americans with an identified disability attended public schools. Unfortunately, of the three million children with special needs who attended school, many received little or no effective education. After IDEA, the number of these children in public schools increased by 100%, proof that the government's efforts have paid off. The special education system has not only given students with disabilities the opportunity to gain public access...... half of the paper ......to federal funding or better enforcement of policies will improve educational outcomes for students students with special needs and their families are severely limited despite calls for greater funding and reform. Further studies on the effects of special education services on achievement are needed to determine the effectiveness of funds allocated for this purpose. It is important to identify the causes of the gap between special education and general education and the means to reduce this gap. Furthermore, more efforts are needed to develop and standardize appropriate assessments of the academic outcomes of students with disabilities. Finally, given the vast differences in service needs and outcomes among students with different types of disabilities, attention must focus on understanding how all of these issues affect different subgroups of special education students..