Teachers have the obligation to help all students succeed in their classroom, even those with special needs. Actively involving the students in the learning process is crucial to maintaining their attention. I know I was much more interested and learned more when I actually did something. Cooperative groups are a great way to extend this principle through group work and readh special students too. Tutoring time may also be a useful strategy and there are some times when homogenious grouping can be useful to catch a small group of students up while others do enrichment work.
Mixed groups can help teach social as well as academic skills.
From my experience spcail needs students are only linited by the teacher or parents. The most you puch a student like this the more that they will excell. Sure ultimately there are limitations, but I believe that we are not giving giving students with specail needs the push that they need. First, it will help students with special needs feel more included in that class and in that school. I believe it will also help regular students to better understand and accept students with special needs.