Special Needs pupils are pupils with physical handicaps and/or learning difficulties and/or behavioural problems. Those with 'statements' have been formally assessed (usually by an Educational Psychologist) and provided with a formal statement of how their special needs are to be met. This is an enforceable document - statemented needs must be met by the LEA. The solution to the resources problem this poses is to delay the process of issuing a statement. Pupils whose problems are simply physical or consist of mild and passive learning difficulties are not an issue, other than in terms of resource claims. Pupils with behavioural problems are another matter and can cause great difficulties as parents of other pupils can withdraw children if they feel that education is being disrupted.

Copyright Sociological Research Online, 1996