This report presents an analysis of the statistics concerning the status of education for students with special needs in member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Special needs students are defined as those who have disabilities with clear biological causes, or who are experiencing learning difficulties, or who have difficulties arising from disadvantages. Following an introductory chapter, Chapter 2 reports on the development of the data collection instrument, a questionnaire. Chapter 3 discusses the qualitative data analysis conducted, including data on the use of categories of students and national educational legislation. Chapter 4 presents a comparative analysis of quantitative data based on national categories of disabilities. Chapter 5 offers analysis of the quantitative data broken down into the three cross-national categories of special needs students. This is followed by a chapter providing additional analyses of the quantitative data, which includes special schools and classes, regular classes, and student/staff ratios. The final chapter offers discussion and conclusions, noting the lack of consistency in terminology used by different countries, implications of the resources model, and a consistent gender effect with more males receiving special education services across all three categories. Five annexes include additional data tables, the questionnaire used, and definitions of educational levels. (Author/DB)