In this article I have examined one particular funding policy for special education in Ontario. Specifically, I was concerned with the deleterious effects of the interpretations and implementations of this policy. To make claims to fund special needs, school boards had to implement a highly impersonal bureaucratic process that separated the textual mode from the lived reality. The all-consuming process of identification and labeling of students guided by stringent Ministry-imposed criteria led to unwanted and unintended consequences. (Contains 2 notes.)