This paper briefly reviews the history of special education and bilingual education, noting parallels and areas of mutual interest. The author cites the challenges involved in providing an appropriate bilingual multicultural education for handicapped children with linguistic differences, and emphasizes the importance of avoiding past mistakes in both bilingual and special education. He proposes three goals for the emerging field: the development of shared responsibility for the limited English proficient (LEP) handicapped child's education (including sharing of turf and avoiding the use of specialized jargon); the improvement of skills in working with LEP handicapped children; and the influencing of federal, state, and local policy related to appropriate service delivery to the populations. (CL)