This study originated in an observation of the return of medical and individual-oriented explanations in conceptualizing the problematization of students in Denmark. The study will include analyses of files of 125 Danish students from a ‘helpschool’ that focuses on children with special education needs who were examined by the school psychologist and referred to special needs education in the 1935-45, and ‘the present’ period, an analysis of files of 100 students referred to special education by school psychologists in 2005-10. Through a Foucauldian lens, this study will analyze the ways in which the childrens’ files function as a technology that produces a “truth” accepted by school officials. The key issue is: In what ways have problematized students been constructed as problems in schools in the past, and how is that done now? In this project I argue that problematization can be applied to capture the ways in which children with deviancy and other ‘problems’ have been categorized. The key research questions will be: 1) What types of problematizations can be found in the files; 2) How do these problematizations reflect the educational, psychological and medical discourses of the time; and 3) How does current research in special needs education address the problematization of the student today?