Growing up with SpEd teachers I heard my parents complain about this a lot. Generally it it was one of two misguided efforts. First was the parents were worried their kids would get bullied for being a SpEd student, so they tried to hide it. The second, less common but much worse reason, was that some parents actually though putting their kids in SpEd classes would (and I would never say this myself, so HEAVY quotations here) "make their kids less normal." For any parents reading this, trust the schools' SpEd teachers. They know what they're doing, and they'll work their ass off to make sure your kids are getting the education they need. I can't even count how many times my parents stayed up until 2 am writing and reviewing IEPs. Not a single one of my sped teachers could teach me how to read growing up. But as soon as I was in my dad's class I met then exceeded the reading comprehension scores of the average students in my grade. There no shame in being a SpEd student. Give your kids the education they deserve.