> they got rid of the special education (or whatever is the correct phrase) classrooms, laid off those teachers

How did they lay off special education teachers?

Special Education is funded via the Federal DoE because of a mix of requirements from the ADA and NCLB.

Unless you mean low severity student cases which might not be classified as SpED.

Edit: Now that I think about it, it might be dependent on your school district and state's fiscal condition too. There might have been a reclassification done by the school district as a personnel cutting measure

Source: Mom's a Special Education teacher.