Mexican American children have made poor progress in special education programs as currently structured. Existing data appear to indicate that minority children, particularly Mexican American, continue to be placed in special education out of proportion to their numbers in the general population. Although the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142) requires that each child referred to special education receive a comprehensive assessment using valid tests administered in the child's dominant language, current assessment practices lead to mislabelling and misplacing Mexican American students. Lack of trained personnel makes it impossible to provide appropriate services to bilingual special education children as mandated by PL 94-142. The development of instructional programs is hampered by lack of knowledge about the learning styles and cognitive development in minority group, bilingual children. Comprehensive, evaluated programs taking these factors into account have not been developed or proven effective for minority group handicapped children. A school district's philosophy of bilingual education and the type of language instruction provided will have a major impact on bilingual special education students. Parental involvement in a child's total educational program has recently become a principle intervention strategy and should be used with minority group parents. (JHZ)