The paper reviews the literature on special education placement for mildly handicapped students from a sociological perspective. Using J. Rosenbaum's framework for understanding the sociological implications of selection systems, which has been applied to curriculum and ability tracking, this paper extends the framework to another selection system, special education. The authors indicate that an understanding of the social processes in special education can help researchers: (1) identify implicit social issues, (2) establish a broader theoretical base, (3) provide new directions for educational research and policy, and (4) influence implementation of federal regulations. (CL)