Special needs assessment procedures (SNAPs) determine whether a child can regularly be schooled or has to be supported and/or segregated (Sauer et al., 2018). This utterly important decision (cf. Pfahl & Powell, 2016) is made by experts from different fields, mostly from the pedagogical profession, special needs realm, medical area, as well as (in some SNAPs) the psychological domain (cf. Vogt & Neuhaus, 2023). As such, SNAPs can be read as manifestations regarding the definition, understanding, and subsequently value of inclusivity and diversity (Neuhaus & Vogt, 2022). As these procedures are organized and structured by the state, the specific realization of a SNAP is a direct comment on the value of diversity as some forms of diversity are considered acceptable while others require labeling, treatment/support, or supervision (cf. Kottmann et al., 2018). This study focuses on the historical development of SNAPs in different regions. By comparing specific realizations of SNAPs with later versions in the same geography but also by comparing cross-culturally, this study wants to serve two aims: Firstly, it will be attempted to identify national idiosyncrasies and to tie these to larger patterns. Secondly, this study will attempt to identify commonalities among the different kinds of SNAPs. It will be tried to identify a grammar of special needs assessment. This grammar will then be interrogated from a standpoint of 'Verdeckung' to identify mechanisms and workings of SNAPs which contribute to the 'Verdeckung' of incoherencies as well as internal contradictions. To serve these goals, this study works with SNAP forms from different localities, namely from Görlitz (GDR), Frankfurt a.M. (FRG), Canada/Ontario, as well as Milano (Italy). These documents cover the time from the 1950s to the mid-1970s. Further, additional documents, such as the archetypes of specific SNAPs (i.e. Magdeburger Verfahren, 1942, Germany), school administrational guidelines, scientific reports etc. The documents have been analyzed with qualitative methodology, mostly by document analysis (cf. Schmidt, 2017), qualitative content analysis (cf. Mayering, 1994), as well as critical historical as well as reconstructive/contextualizing (Vogt, 2015) approaches. As part of the overall results, this study could identify the mechanism of de- and recontextualization of knowledge as a key driver of interdisciplinary communication but also as a constitutive moment of (complexity) reduction, the latter could be read as an instance of 'Verdeckung' in which disciplinary borders, expert’s insecurity, and incoherencies in the child’s assessment are made invisible.

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