To help students with special needs, I have my students work in cooperative groups. Cooperative learning has been very successful in my classroom. I also have students come to the overhead and work on out problems. I feel all students can reach their highest potential through patience and hard work. 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.