This book explores the historical origins and institutional shape of special education across the American states. This institutional expansion of special education has occurred over the past thirty years, and has reshaped public education by defining the "rules of passage."

Tables -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part 1: Formalizing the Rules of Access -- 1 Common Schooling in the New Nation: European Roots on American Soil -- 2 Compulsory Attendance and Special Exemptions: Formalizing the Rules of Access -- 3 The Dilemma of Compulsory Attendance and the Construction of the Special Class -- Part 2: Structuring the Rules of Passage -- 1 The Non-normative Expansion of Special Education -- 2 The Dramatistic Sequences of Special Education: A Theoretical Reflection -- 3 The Institutional Shaping of Educational Rights Epilogue -- References -- Subject Index -- Name Index.