In the context of the reforms in the sixties, special education saw a considerable development of its structures, an expansion of its personnel and of the populations under its remit. This reorganisation, linked to the lengthening of compulsory schooling, succeeded thanks to the mobilisation of actors in the relevant institutions, unions, and civil organisation, activists in the cause of children but also in the cause of a laic public State school for all. Their converging interests were relayed by the plans worked out at the central level of the administration. However little by little the modalities for intervention have changed, in keeping with the findings of the Bloch-Lainé report (1967) but also in keeping with the criticism of the abusive vocational guidance given young people failing in school and finding themselves labelled “borderline retarded”. From then on, the watchword will be the struggle against all forms of lack of adaptation in teaching. The underlying logic, that of prevention and adaptation, will open onto policies of overall integration.