A significant proportion of Canada's school-age population requires special educational provisions. Statistics Canada reports that 4.6% of 5- to 14-year-olds had some kind of disability in 2006. As well, recent data from the British Columbia and Ontario ministries of education indicate that students with designated special educational needs comprise close to 9% of the primary and secondary school population. Educational placements among this population pose controversial questions: are students with disabilities better served in "inclusive" settings with mainstream peers, or "separate" settings with similarly challenged peers, where specialized attention is arguably easier to provide? Despite a move toward inclusion being the most significant trend across Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, and widespread belief in the social and emotional advantages of inclusion, the academic consequences of educating students with special needs in inclusive rather than separate settings remain contested. Often, proponents of separate settings do not disagree with inclusion in principle, but believe, in practice, adequate support services cannot be offered in inclusive settings. Others appear to believe the conditions for successful inclusion are achievable, but not currently in place. The Canadian Council on Learning recently completed a systematic review of the literature comparing the academic outcomes of students with special educational needs (SEN) in inclusive settings with their counterparts in separate settings. This review was designed to investigate claims that inclusive settings are more or less beneficial than separate ones. (Contains 4 figures.)