[WS:] My wife tells me that it is not always a good idea. Sped status offers certain legal protections that regular ed status lacks, so having the sped status can be beneficial to certain students. Self-contained programs for sped students are being closed down, at least in the DC area, to save money and their students are being moved to gen ed classes, which causes all kinds of problems for these students and their IEP's are their only legal protection.
As to the rest of your posting, this is pretty much the same what I hear daily from my wife, especially the fear of lawsuits and failing to meet the NCLB standards. Since sped is usually the reason why a schools fails these standards - keep it in mind that sped kids have to take the same standardized tests as gen ed students - the sped department is often treated as burden to be avoided by school administration.
Wojtek