This book provides a full account of a totally new approach to making international comparisons in the field of special needs education. It makes comparisons of students with disabilities, learning or behaviour difficulties and disadvantages on the basis of the additional resources made available to them to access the curriculum, which in some countries covers some 35% of school-age students. To improve the quality of the comparisons made countries re-classified their own classification schemes and data into a new tri-partite cross-national classification system:

-Category A covers those students whose disabilities have clear biological causes.

-Category B covers those students who are experiencing learning and behaviour difficulties for no particular reason.

-Category C covers those students who have difficulties arising from disadvantages.

Among the many analyses provided, the book highlights the numbers of students involved, where they are educated (special schools, special classes and regular schools), and a breakdown by gender.

Data has been provided by 23 countries: Austria, Belgium (Flemish Community), Canada (New Brunswick), the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.