The federal law called IDEA or Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ensures EVERY child is entitled to a FAPE or Free Appropriate Public Education. What is "appropriate" for one special-needs child may not be appropriate for another. With that being said, each child is entitled to an education in the LRE or Least Restrictive Environment. This means that all kinds of supports and services (including a one-to-one aide) must be tried and exhausted before pulling the child from a regular classroom into a Special Day Class or another setting.
Your questions was "should the challenged be in different classes?" "Challenged" has many meanings. Short people are height-challenged. Visually-impaired people are visually-challenged, etc. Should you take a child who is blind and put them in another classroom? Not unless all supports and services have been exhausted. What about the child that has a genius IQ but has cerebral palsy and cannot speak, see well and is in a wheelchair? This child should be with his peers with perhaps an intinerant aide that can assist as needed.
As a special education advocate and the mother of a special-needs child, I am a huge proponent of full inclusion. The school district wanted to institutionalize my son with autism. I fought (and continue to fight), but he is now in a regular classroom, above grade level and will grow into an independent, tax-paying adult. If I listened to the school district, he would have lived on government assistance for his entire life.
