Abstract
The topic addressed in the paper is the infamous problem of "practical schools" and their demise seen through some ethnographic evidence taken from our research. The practical schools served nominally as schools for severely handicaped children and in practice they were used by both Roma and the main school system as an "bypass" institution for many Roma children through which they were allowed to avoid the clash with the mainstream curriculum pressure.
They were criticised for being segregative and that they close the path for better education for Roma children. They have been on demise for some time.
This seems to be triumph of desegregation attempts and something generally desirable. In reality, the issue may be somehow more complex and may bring about some uneasy questions about how the positive reform aims ends in "desegregation feuds" that are related to the interplay of fundings, institutions, school system, system of social care and the public.