Education of children with disabilities in Serbia, as well as in the whole of Yugoslavia, was based on international conventions, such as ICERD (1965/1969). It became an integral part of the Yugoslav (thus Serbian) legal framework. This kicked the debate, and later regulative action in direction of substituting the application of the principle of segregation in education of this this children population by the principle of integration. In SR Serbia, during 1970s, 1980s and the beginning of 1990s, education for children with disabilities was regulated by federal and local (Serbia’s) laws and regulations. Serbia had a relatively long history of legal frameworks for education of children with disabilities, starting from 1882. However, the fact that education for children with disabilities was based on a law going as far back as 1929 up until 1960 was not helpful when new desirable standards were to be introduced. The fact that it was only in 1960 that the registers for all such children were introduced in Yugoslavia presented was a challenge. The paradigm changes from segregation to integration in expert and government circles in 1970s and 1980s was actually going hand in hand with ever more numerous special schools for children with disabilities. It was only in 1980 that the process of application of the principle of integration started in Yugoslavia, and, hence, in Serbia as well. But the process stalled and, in case of Serbia, practically the application never materialised. The task of this paper is to follow this abortive attempt, and to try to uncover the main reasons for its ultimate failure.