This manuscript briefly examines minority participation within the school population that is eligible for special education services--namely, African Americans in the United States and the Roma population in Romania. A large percentage of students from both minorities come to school unprepared to learn and they remain behind because of the simultaneous action of several factors, such as family values, material support for child education, evaluation team members' and teachers' perceptions and expectations, insufficient student and parent guidance, and institutional racial/ethnic discrimination. Children coming from minority groups, and from low-socio-economic-status families, are more likely to be identified as having special needs in both the United States and Romania.