My mum took time off from nursing and started working in the school as a Resource teacher (this was in a Texas ISD), which was a class developed for handicapped and children with mental disabilities such as ADD, ADHD, Depression, Bipolar...to help them succeed in school.  Before this class was developed these students were being alienated, put down, and passed from teacher to teacher because they simply did not have the time or the want to help a child with a disability.  Alot of the children passed and continued on through their education, once the Resource dept felt that the child was secure enough with learning, they would then ease them into regular classes, but was always assisted by the resource aid during the class period (that way if the teacher did not have the time to help explain something taught, the assitant was there to guide the student without interruption to class time.)  It worked well and when I graduated, so did most of the students that were in these Resource learning groups, but also, by the time they reached highschool they were in regular class sessions, without their assitants any longer.  My mum will still have students that she taught who are now in their 30s and so older come up to her in the grocery store and say I remember you...you were my resource teacher....you were awesome.  These "special needs" students just need someone to believe in them, to allow them to be understood when they can't understand, and to have someone make them feel like they are worth the knowledge.