This is what is called “mainstreaming”. My wife was responsible for a child with Rett Syndrome, an affliction affecting mainly girls, where they regress to an infantile state of development at an early age. She was placed in a regular classroom with my wife working with her full time.
I have a friend who is a "one-on-one" for a special needs child in a public school. Each one of the special ed children at my friend's school has his/her own "one-on-one." The parents tend to be extremely demanding. If the mother of my friend's student is ever displeased about anything, the school district panics, fearing a lawsuit, and they call in armies of lawyers for emergency meetings that go on for days. And people wonder why the public schools cost so much.
Some of the special needs kids are classified as SED (severely emotionally disturbed.) Yet they still have to go to the regular school. The regular kids are terrified of these SED kids. Some of the special ed kids will do things like taking all their clothes off in class. It sounds really chaotic sometimes, and it's GOT to affect the education of the non-special-needs students.
When I was a kid, any "SED" or similar kid would have to go to a special school. I listen to my friend's horror stories and it just seems insane to me. Why are we doing this?
As for affirmative action, I don't follow sports, but I do know a lot of Lakers fans. I've never heard one complain that it's "not fair" that most of the Lakers are black males. Nobody is suggesting that the Lakers should be forced to hire women, short people, disabled people, mentally handicapped people, etc. That's because all the fans care about is excellence; they want the Lakers to WIN. Affirmative action will not end until we desire excellence in other areas just the same way we desire it in sports.