Principal Moss puts Bobby and Joseph into a "special needs" class to keep the low-testing students from taking an upcoming standardized test as part of the "No Child Left Behind" program, which irks Hank, who believes his son's mediocre grades are from lack of trying.
Tropes:
- Apathetic Student: Played for Laughs. When Principal Moss says that if the students flunk the standardized tests, the teachers will get fired, prompting the students to cheer.
- At the same time, it actually is part of the plot- Moss and Mr. Terkelson hook said students by playing up the benefits (no homework, snacks and naps in class, and a wide array of activities to do, plus the Alamoland trip) knowing full well no kid would refuse.
- Apathetic Teacher: Principal Moss and the teachers are more worried about losing their jobs than making sure the students pass the standardized test, but are willing to dump all the underachievers in a "special needs" class instead of getting them prepared. And when they do help the underachievers, they deliberately ignore all of the other students, which leads to the school's test scores being lower than usual.
- Armor-Piercing Question: When Hank confronts Mr. Terkelson over the special education testing, he asks whether the test has ever resulted in a student believed to be special needs being proven not to be. Mr. Terkelson is stumped.
- Dumbass Has a Point: For all the lying they did about the kids they put in the fake special ed program, they probably aren't too far off the mark with Bobby's label of ADHD.
- Honor Before Reason: When Hank goes to confront Principal Moss about putting Bobby in the Special Needs class, Moss uses an Emergency Exit to escape and Hank is too honorable to ignore the door's purpose.
- Karma Houdini: While Moss does deserve blame for his special needs idea, nobody blames Dale not doing his job as a chaperone, as they all assume he's a special needs student. Hank himself even blames Bobby, not Dale.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: For all the underhanded antics he's pulled, Carl finally gets in trouble for the Special Needs stunt, ending with him being suspended for an undisclosed period of time after the school's test scores are lower than expected and resulting him being forced to take a job with a meat-selling company to keep his health insurance active.
- A particular scene that shows how fucked Moss was is when Stu confronts him after the Alamoland incident, explaining that compared to other embarrassing incidents involving the school, this time the witnesses wants the heads of whoever caused it to roll. When Carl exposes the scheme to him, Stu pretends he didn't just hear that and walks out.
- Loophole Abuse: Basically what instigates the conflict of the episode is that the school board starts putting random students in the Special Needs class since students with learning disabilities aren't permitted to take the standardized test, only for the loophole to backfire when taking them to an amusement park where their recklessness on a water ride catches the attention of other patrons, making them question why they're not supervised or wearing safety helmets.
- Mistaken Age: Dale is misidentified as one of the "special needs" students. Carl even points out to Hank that everyone thinks this after the news report.
- Shout-Out: When Carl tries to cover that he hasn't read the No Child Left Behind manual, he mentions he got distracted by the Harry Potter books.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Stu's essential reaction when Moss reveals the scheme to him after he came under fire for the Alamoland incident- he immediately pretends he didn't just hear that and walks out.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Even if Principal Moss and the teachers decided to buckle down to help Bobby and the other "special" students get ready for the standardized tests, there was only so much time they'd have to cram all that information so the school ended up with even lower scores than usual. It doesn't help that the studying montage showed the teachers deliberately ignoring all of the other students to focus on a handful of them.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Just how much of Tom Landry's staff was laid off is never explicitly revealed. Only that Carl was one, and the most prominent figure, of them.
