This article is part of a case study of federal leadership in special education from the perspective of those who served in the roles of Assistant Secretaries of Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services (OSERS) and Directors of Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), or their equivalents in the former U.S. Office of Education and later U.S. Department of Education. The perspectives cover the time-period since the passage of the Education of the Handicapped Act of 1975 to amendments of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1997 and the end of the Clinton administration in 2001. The participants detailed their (a) Career and appointment, (b) vision for educating students with disabilities, (c) theory of change, (d) politics and financial constraints, (e) advocacy, and (f) views of the past, present, and future.

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In this article, we provide an overview of the special education policies and practices enacted in the United States over the past 25 years. Although there have been some improvements in conditions for students with special education needs, achievement data continue to indicate unacceptably low levels of achievement. We believe that the lack of achievement highlights the fact that greater collaboration is needed between special educators and general education educators. We describe the different forms of collaboration that have evolved over the past two decades and we provide recommendations for strengthening collaborations in the future.

This article is part of a case study of federal leadership in special education from the perspective of those who served in the roles of Assistant Secretaries of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services and Directors of the Office of Special Education Programs or their equivalents in the former U.S. Office of Education and later U.S. Department of Education. This case study covers the time period from the George W. Bush administration and lasting through the first 4 years of President Barack Obama’s administration (2000–2012). During this time, government intervention in education reached its zenith with the passage of No Child Left Behind in 2001 and the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004. The participants detailed their (a) career and appointment, (b) vision for educating students with disabilities, (c) theory of change, (d) politics and financial constraints, (e) advocacy, and (f) views of the past, present, and future.