Contents: Introduction -- Preface -- Part I. The indictment: 1. A preview of coming infractions -- 2. The big lie - how struggling learners are illegally placed in Special Education -- 3. Underachievement and the big cover up -- Part II. The right instruction at the right time: 4. RTI to the rescue of struggling learners -- 5. Special education is not special enough -- Part III. Who's to blame? 6. Show teachers the money -- 7. Mismanagement of classroom instruction -- Part IV. The possibilities and politics of reform -- 8. The folly of reliance on state and local reform -- 9. A civil right to end the wrongs and the reinvention of special education -- 10. A political call to action: Parents - unite and fight! -- Notes -- Index -- Acknowledgments -- About the author

Kalman R. "Buzzy" Hettleman exposes the tragic tale of the millions of schoolchildren who are "Mislabeled as Disabled" and dumped into special education where they never fully learn basic skills in reading, writing, and math. The majority of these students are not disabled in any medical or other clinical sense. Rather, in violation of federal law, they fail to receive proper instruction and fall farther behind, suffering stigma and segregation. With heart-wrenching stories of individual children from his own experience as an advocate and ground-breaking policy researcher, Hettleman documents what can only be labeled educational abuse. Hettleman also reveals how teachers are undervalued heroes denied the teaching tools to do the job right and, like students, are victimized by the system. He not only cites in detail the better instruction that will enable students and teachers to succeed; he spells out the legislative and judicial civil rights that cry out for reform. This book is a call to everyone to become enraged, and then engaged in the struggle for reform. - inside front cover