In this paper, we try to examine the classical sociological points of special education, especially the organizational form of special education, social background of students and the minority status of students. The material of the study was collected mostly during 2003 from one large city in Finland. This city has more than a 100-year-long tradition of organizing special education, and it is also still organized very traditionally, that is mainly in special schools. The oldest functioning special education school was founded in 1901. This form of organization based on special schools is no longer typical in Finland. Over 1000 questionnaires were sent to special education school teachers, and students and their parents, as well as to special needs assistants. The percentage of returned responses was between 70% and 80%. Local material is practically the only way to get information of these critical points because of the Act on the Protection of Privacy and the administrative orientation of state statistics. The results show that boys are strongly over-represented in special education. Over three out of four of the students in classroom-based special education are boys. According to our comparison, the children from immigrant families account for less than one out of ten students in general education, but in classroom-based special education they represent nearly 14%, and in part-time special education as much as one-quarter (25%). The form of education differs also in regard to the social class of the parents. The parents have been divided into upper, middle and lower social classes according to their occupation. The proportion of upper-class parents of the student group in general education (42%) is doubled when compared to the parents of both special education groups. The majority of the parents of severe disabled students support the idea of special education schools, but the majority of the parents from the other special education groups are in favour of education in the nearest school. (Contains 4 figures, 3 tables, and 11 notes.)