In Scotland children with additional support needs are considered a group requiring extra resources, but decisions on the nature of that support and which groups should be prioritised has largely been left to professionals. Published statistics suggest steady progress towards inclusion of children with additional support needs as relatively low proportions (1%) of pupils are placed in separate special schools. Official statistics show that a growing number of children with additional support needs are placed in mainstream schools, and that a lower proportion of pupils are being excluded. However, the expansion of children with additional support needs in mainstream may be attributed to a growth in the pupils who are counted as falling into this category, rather than a shift of children from special to mainstream settings. In addition, there has been a rapid reduction in the proportion of children receiving a statutory support plan (a CSP), which provides some guarantee of additional resources. Furthermore the strong association between the identification of certain types of stigmatised additional support needs, particularly learning disability and social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, and social class is rarely discussed. The paper concludes by considering explanations for the current expansion of the additional support needs population.