sped = special ed

[Joel S. Berson]

At 7/1/2010 09:57 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:

>My wife, Rene Mandel, writes in reply:
>
>I don't know the history, but certainly Boston and the suburbs around it
>have very active communities of parents of special education children.

There was certainly much controversy when
Massachusetts passed its act requiring public
schools to provide special education.  From
http://tinyurl.com/2fdlh8w, a "Timeline" (Google's own?):

1972 - In 1972, Massachusetts Governor Francis
Sargent signed into law Chapter 766 of the Acts
and Resolves of Massachusetts. 1 It was the
broadest and most comprehensive law regulating
special education in the nation at the time, 2
and later served as a model for federal ...
    From Special Education in Massachusetts:
Reevaluating Standards in Light of 

https://litigation-essentials.lexisnexis.com ...

"Broadest and most comprehensive" suggests to me
that the term "special ed" may have become common then.

Joel

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