Government: Schools must provide sports for students with disabilities
WASHINGTON (AP) - Students with disabilities must be given a fair shot to play on a traditional sports team or have their own leagues, the Education Department says.
Disabled students who want to play for their school could join traditional teams if officials can make "reasonable modifications" to accommodate them. If those adjustments would fundamentally alter a sport or give the student an advantage, the department is directing the school to create parallel athletic programs that have comparable standing to traditional programs.
"Sports can provide invaluable lessons in discipline, selflessness, passion and courage, and this guidance will help schools ensure that students with disabilities have an equal opportunity to benefit from the life lessons they can learn on the playing field or on the court," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement announcing the new guidance Friday.
The groundbreaking order is reminiscent of the Title IX expansion of athletic opportunities for girls and women four decades ago and could bring sweeping changes to school budgets and locker rooms for years to come.
Activists cheered the changes.
"This is a landmark moment for students with disabilities. This will do for students with disabilities what Title IX did for women," said Terri Lakowski, who for a decade led a coalition pushing for the changes. "This is a huge victory."
It's not clear whether the new guidelines will spark a sudden uptick in sports participation. There was a big increase in female participation in sports after Title IX guidance instructed schools to treat female athletics on par with male teams. That led many schools to cut some men's teams, arguing that it was necessary to be able to pay for women's teams.
Education Department officials emphasized they did not intend to change sports traditions dramatically or guarantee students with disabilities a spot on competitive teams. Instead, they insisted schools may not exclude students based on their disabilities if they can keep up with their classmates.
Federal laws, including the 1973 Rehabilitation Act and the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, require states to provide a free public education to all students and prohibit schools that receive federal money from discriminating against students with disabilities. Going further, the new directive from the Education Department's civil rights division explicitly tells schools and colleges that access to interscholastic, intramural and intercollegiate athletics is a right.
The department suggests minor accommodations to incorporate students with disabilities onto sports teams. For instance, track and field officials could use a visual cue for a deaf runner to begin a race.
Some states already offer such programs. Maryland, for instance, passed a law in 2008 that required schools to create equal opportunities for students with disabilities to participate in physical education programs and play on traditional athletic teams. And Minnesota awards state titles for disabled student athletes in six sports.
Increasingly, those with disabilities are finding spots on their schools' teams.
"I heard about some of the other people who joined their track teams in other states. I wanted to try to do that," said Casey Followay, 15, of Wooster, Ohio, who competes on his high school track team in a racing wheelchair.
Current rules require Followay to race on his own, without competitors running alongside him. He said he hopes the Education Department guidance will change that and he can compete against runners.
"It's going to give me the chance to compete against kids at my level," he said.
Some cautioned that progress would come in fits and starts initially.
"Is it easy? No," said Brad Hedrick, director of disability services at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and himself a hall-of-famer in the National Wheelchair Basketball Association. "In most places, you're beginning from an inertial moment. But it is feasible and possible that a meaningful and viable programming can be created."
Disabled students who want to play for their school could join traditional teams if officials can make "reasonable modifications" to accommodate them. If those adjustments would fundamentally alter a sport or give the student an advantage, the department is directing the school to create parallel athletic programs that have comparable standing to traditional programs.
"Sports can provide invaluable lessons in discipline, selflessness, passion and courage, and this guidance will help schools ensure that students with disabilities have an equal opportunity to benefit from the life lessons they can learn on the playing field or on the court," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement announcing the new guidance Friday.
The groundbreaking order is reminiscent of the Title IX expansion of athletic opportunities for girls and women four decades ago and could bring sweeping changes to school budgets and locker rooms for years to come.
Activists cheered the changes.
"This is a landmark moment for students with disabilities. This will do for students with disabilities what Title IX did for women," said Terri Lakowski, who for a decade led a coalition pushing for the changes. "This is a huge victory."
It's not clear whether the new guidelines will spark a sudden uptick in sports participation. There was a big increase in female participation in sports after Title IX guidance instructed schools to treat female athletics on par with male teams. That led many schools to cut some men's teams, arguing that it was necessary to be able to pay for women's teams.
Education Department officials emphasized they did not intend to change sports traditions dramatically or guarantee students with disabilities a spot on competitive teams. Instead, they insisted schools may not exclude students based on their disabilities if they can keep up with their classmates.
Federal laws, including the 1973 Rehabilitation Act and the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, require states to provide a free public education to all students and prohibit schools that receive federal money from discriminating against students with disabilities. Going further, the new directive from the Education Department's civil rights division explicitly tells schools and colleges that access to interscholastic, intramural and intercollegiate athletics is a right.
The department suggests minor accommodations to incorporate students with disabilities onto sports teams. For instance, track and field officials could use a visual cue for a deaf runner to begin a race.
Some states already offer such programs. Maryland, for instance, passed a law in 2008 that required schools to create equal opportunities for students with disabilities to participate in physical education programs and play on traditional athletic teams. And Minnesota awards state titles for disabled student athletes in six sports.
Increasingly, those with disabilities are finding spots on their schools' teams.
"I heard about some of the other people who joined their track teams in other states. I wanted to try to do that," said Casey Followay, 15, of Wooster, Ohio, who competes on his high school track team in a racing wheelchair.
Current rules require Followay to race on his own, without competitors running alongside him. He said he hopes the Education Department guidance will change that and he can compete against runners.
"It's going to give me the chance to compete against kids at my level," he said.
Some cautioned that progress would come in fits and starts initially.
"Is it easy? No," said Brad Hedrick, director of disability services at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and himself a hall-of-famer in the National Wheelchair Basketball Association. "In most places, you're beginning from an inertial moment. But it is feasible and possible that a meaningful and viable programming can be created."
For those of you that cannot think, you need to know that many special needs kids aer very good at sports.
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I do hope this insults a few of you, many of our modern day medical miracles have come from what normal people call mentally retarded, Some of the most incredible music ever created in classical music would have been classified as special needs if not worse. All it shows is how closed minded you all can be about these kids
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These special needs kids and people deserve MORE than they are getting! Fact not everyone deserves a trophy but everyone deserves a chance!!
What about kids who get cut from teams and can't play?
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I believe in legitimate opportunity, including ways that disabled children can participate and compete, but how much will be expected?
 @flashlight The parents will sue, in the same way that parents of girls sued under Title IX and instead of fight it, school districts that are already cash strapped and cutting sports, will just cut them completely rather than fight!Â
And everybody gets a trophy.
Is our government going to stop sending planes and tanks to Egypt to help PAY for this? Just asking. I know a few physically handicapped people who would rather join a standard, normal sports team, than have their own "special" one. Obviously, our government underestimates the handicapped too.
 @harley-h.s.c:Â
".... . know a few physically handicapped people who would rather join a standard, normal sports team, than have their own "special" one ...."
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And THAT is exactly what this is all about. It is NOT saying that new teams have tpo be created for every sport that parallel existing teams. What it IS saying is that those who are disabled cannot be "barred" from trying out & participating just because they are disabled - which is what is happening now all over the US.
Does anything worthwhile come from the 'Education Department'? Â More and more I see that schools should have local control. Â
If our Federal Government is broke, Â should they have any say?
What a stupid decision! Who is going to pay for this? What is going to happen now is that more sports will be taken away from non-handicap kids so that the disabled ones can play, thus causing more kids to miss out on scholarships to go to college. This will then eventually trickle to the college level. Dumb, stupid, silly! There is the special olympics for this. Sports are already taking a financial hit, this will just add to it, with no chance of these kids getting a scholarship.
What Title IX has done for sports. Coming from a girl who loves sports, this is not something to be modeling anything after.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttC_d4nSq8s
More gov meddling where none is wanted or needed. Most schools are already strapped for money, most tax payers are at the end of their limit, now this. Some or maybe even a majority of schools will just eliminate school sports entirely because they just can't afford this. Then we can all sit and wonder why little "fat" Jonny can't read.
 @lmdk2 Similar to what happened with Title IX, instead of adding women's sports they cut men's sports, some with long traditions in their area.
Wow. I am disappointed, but not surprised, by the level of ignorance (and in some instances boardring on hatred) of those with special needs/differnt abilities displayed by the comments here.
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NOBODY is saying they will force these kids to play football, baseball, do gymnastics, whatever. What it is saying is allow them the opportunity to participate on the same level as their classmates & peers.
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Many have already addressed the benefits to the special needs students so I will not discuss that. What nobody mentioned is the benefits to the "regular" students, the "normal" students (as some of you have called them) in working side-by-side with these students, being part of a team with them. It teaches them so many things - empathy, compassion, teamwork, problem solving, how to help others, patience, how to teach others. Aren't these all things we want our children learning?
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There was a terrific story on the news the other day about a HS back east. There was a special needs student there, EVERYBODY knew him, and he knew everybody. He is always smiling, always has something kind to say to anyone he spoke with. He will never be a "sports star", never be able to participate in team sports, even intramurally. Well, Home Coming came around. Three of the school's jock sport stars were nominated King. They all three made a pact - no matter which one of the won, they would award the Home Coming King crown to the special needs student instead. They said later they agreed to this in part to be able to let him experience a little bit of what it is to be "normal" in HS> The special needs student is proudly telling anyone & everyone about the honor bestowed upon him. He was SO excited when they called his name, and his reaction apparently made the jocks who were nominated cry. I think those three young men learned some very important lessons by being around this special student, and they showed those lessons when they bestowed the crown on him.
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THOSE are the sorts of lessons that can be taught to the "non-special needs" students by participating with the "special needs" students side-by-side on sports teams. They will be learning lessons that will last them a lifetime - and to me, that is what sports should be all about.Â
 @LocalLady Who will pay for this? The only thing that is going to happen is you are going to get sporting programs cut once little Timmy doesn't make the team because he is not physically or mentally able to do the sport. His parents will then sue, using this stupid decision, and cashed strapped schools (who can barely afford sports programs now) will just cut the program instead. We have the special olympics for this!
 @sometimesright:Â
Well, we also jhave the "regular" Olympics, so why have sports in schools at all? If they aren;t good enough for the Olympics, oh well, they should get over it.
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Doi you even realize how assinine yuor "reasoning" (and I use that term extremely loosely) is? Why SHOULDN'T they be included if they are able to do so? Why are you saying they need to be segregated & excluded? Ever hear of Brown -vs- Board of Education? You know, that whole "seperate is not equal" thing?
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All this does is give them standing to be given the opportunity to try out alongside their classmates - if they are "good enough" they can be on the team. If they are not, end of story.
 @LocalLady Because the second they don't make the team some parent, probably many, will sue and that will be the end of school sports for all. They are already on the chopping block. BTW..if they can make the team based on merit (as my handicapped father did when he made the bowling team using his crutches in high school) then by all means they should be allowed to.  Sorry, but we are not all equal. My daughter happens to be a better athlete than my son or even I was, therefore she made the team and plays varsity and my son didn't. That is life! Sports should not be down to the lowest common denominator as you seem to think they should. Sports are not fair, they are not equal, not everyone gets to be on the team or participate and even if they make the team there is no gaurantee that they will play in the game/match/event, much less start. All of this costs a lot of money, but also brings money into the schools/colleges. What you and this silly ideea are asking is not equality of opportunity, but equality of results. Sorry lady, I grew up with a father who was crippled by polio since he was 5. I know more about the trials of the handicap than anyone as I from my birth to the present have lived it. My father has had to overcome more than any man I have ever known and with no help from anyone he graduated from college and had a sucessful career, raised a family of five children, all without having to take from others. The government is not the place to handle this, private people are doing this on their own without the weight of the government ruining it, which is what will happen here as it always does when do-gooders get involved. The biggest problem we have with education is the attempt to level the results, thus spending 100s of thousands of dollars on one special needs kid, knowing that that kid will never become a productive citizen, taking much needed money away from those that will. We don't want the handicap to be looked on different, when they ARE different. My dad's polio has come to define him in ways he never could have achieved had he been "normal". He is proud of it, not because of people like you who feel sorry for him and want to give him a leg up (he despises that), but because he overcame his handicap and has been one of the most successful people I know. The government had not a thing to do with it, my father and his family did it themselves and took nothing in return from others. This is flat out a stupid idea. It is nothing more than the old adage that if you don't have enough for everyone, then nobody will get it.
 @LocalLady I have no problem allowing them the opportunity to try out and play.  Even a reasonable modification is great, if schools can afford it and have more of them participate than even better.  I don't like where the end of this statement is going.
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"Disabled students who want to play for their school could join traditional teams if officials can make "reasonable modifications" to accommodate them. If those adjustments would fundamentally alter a sport or give the student an advantage, the department is directing the school to create parallel athletic programs that have comparable standing to traditional programs."
@LocalLadyÂ
  If there are schools out there that arenât letting special needs kids try out, then I feel that's wrong. And if they truly only have to make slight adjustments and the special needs kid is better than the next kid in line trying out, by all means he or she should be on the team.
Beyond that I don't think any other provisions should be made. The other kids in the school that aren't good enough to be on a team don't get any special treatment or their own team because they weren't good enough and there are PLENTY of other special programs out there already for disabled people to participate in.Â
 @Mickey602 Good point, and what will be defined as "special needs"?  I wish I was 7' tall and could have been the center on the basketball team, because I am only 5'9" does that mean I get to sue to have accomadations so I can compete with the 7 footer? I can see nothing but ruining sports for all with this silly idea. This is a lawyer's playfield!
Athletics should be removed from all schools. They should be spun off into Little Leagues and the sort. They are of no use in school curriculum and just end up costing tax payers more money. Schools can have all the after hours sports programs they want but athletics should not be a requirement.
 @Blindman There are a lot of students who would quit school if they didn't have sports. They may hate school, but if keeping their grades up and a good attendance record is the only way they can play their beloved sports, they stick to it and finish school.
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This isn't anything new. In the 1930s, my grandfather was the primary provider for his family after his father died, and went to school as he could. When they told him he couldn't play football anymore, he dropped out of school.
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Any tool that keeps students in school deserves to remain.
Athletics aren't are requirement and for the most part parents of the participating kids are the ones that are flipping the bill for them to participate.
All i can say is that this is so wrong. Special needs students practicing side by side with regular students will highly downsize regular players skill. Parallel leagues? Wheres that funding coming from when money is being cut? Lets just be honest, there is a huge difference between the two groups and don't use those one in a million exceptions for this.
What a crock...
Sounds like a good program for some of the parents. Discipline, sellflessness, and guidance.
Isn't it time that we provide mentally disabled students with schools of their own where they can get specialized education and access to specialized recreational programs?Â
 @lakeview Yes...like they did up until about 20 years ago, for about 1/10th the cost of what we are doing by sticking them all into class rooms with non-handicapped kids!Â
Let them try out and play with the regular sport teams. If they make the cut, then so be it. This is the fair way to do this. By designing a "special" team is only advocating they are not like the rest. Why would the government want to mandate this segregation? Seems like a cruel thing to do.
It sounds good in theory and I think it would be a good thing if we could afford it, but the schools are strapped as it is. We should be looking at cutting costs. If anything, this should be handled by the local parks & recreation leagues where they would be able to get children from all the schools in the area together instead of each school setting up special programs (and hiring special coaches) for just a few students at each school.
Let them try out just like everybody else. They derserve the chance to play, absolutely, but the bar needs to be the same for all athletes. Maybe they play varsity, or 3rd string JV. The fact that matters is they have the opportunity to play and compete, but there should not be a separate league, nor a different standard for them to play. The real world does not have different standards.
This is ridiculous. Why not let old fat guys like me with no depth perception play for the Mariners? I need to feel special and included too, don't I?  I'm the parent of a special needs kid. He would not do well in sports. He will do what you tell hi - or try, but expect him to make the decisions necessary to make a football play or a double play? It ain't happening. It ain't happening even in a league of similarly abled kids!!!  If the kid can play, the kid can play, but special leagues? Mandatory? Yes, I'm all for physical education. If there is enough interest within a district, perhaps, but to mandate more spending on our schools when they are already screaming for more is ludicrous.
 @Mike Pittman I think the idea is to give these special-needs kids an opportunity to show if they're capable of playing with rest of the athletes without being subjected to discrimination. Bias can go both ways and I can see lawsuits resulting from this mandate as result of kids getting cut from a team.
@MyTacoma @Mike Pittman Opportunity and ability are two different things. If they are able then yes, but if they are not then no. Some of the contact sports are pretty hard and I can just imagine what would happen with lawsuits were they to get hurt playing a sport they didn't have the ability to manage.
100% for special needs kids be able to play sports i bet some will outshine the reg kids.
@Seattle Nothing's stopping them from trying out for the regular teams now. I don't understand the probablem. If they're good enough they make the team, if they're not just like every other kid that not good enough they don't get to play.
 @mickey602:Â
The reality is that in MANY instances, they ARE stopped from ytrying out - simply because they are "disabled". They are not even given a chance to prove if they have the necessary skills to be part of the team. The lable is slapped on them & they are dismissed. Look at the comments you & others hve made here - that is the way they get treated.
 @Seattle Do the kids that are outshined, than become special needs or do they then get their own leagues aswell?
This would benefit everyone. The special needs kids, will have a chance to feel normal and be treated normal. The normal kids will learn that no matter who you are, you are treated equal. Everyone can learn from a child with special needs. If there is a big fight about doing this, I will fight to remove all sports out of the school.Â
Except for the fact that not everyone IS treated equally.
Life's not fair, never has been, never will be.
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Now don't be too hard on me, I am just making a point. Some of the disadvantaged unfortunately do not have a full-deck in the first place, it would just be terrible if they start getting hammered playing football or some other sport,
 @dkgiovenco They would not get hammered, in fact kids with special needs are freakish strong and can handle a football game.Â
All the "freakishly stong" special ed kids at my highschool were also uncoordinated that a very weak individual would wreck them in a contact sport.
@Just my say @dkgiovenco Their abilities are as varied as anyone elses. Some may be freakishly strong while others may not be.
 @jatok:Â
Since the main thing about this is to "level the playing field", what it is saying is that they have to be allowed the same opportunities. That means they cannot be disallowed simply because they are disabled. They have to be allowed to try. If they can "make the cut", they should be allowed to participate.
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Look at the Snohomish HS Football team. A couple of years ago, they had a player with Down Syndrome. He practiced just as hard as everybody else on the team, he played in every game. He even made a game-winning touchdown in a "creoss town rivalry" against Lake Stevens that became a huge youtube sensation. Google Ike Ditzenberg, and you will learn more about this fabulous young man.
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I think that the main thing about this act is that it ALLOWS for them to participate. It does not MANDATE it. Nobody is going to force them to sign up to play. What it is saying is that if they have the desire & skills, they should be allowed to play - not simply turned away & refused because they are "disabled".
@Just my say    Did you really just say that? Ummm, not all kids with special needs are "freakish strong."
 @Tattooed_Angel Freakishly strong is a word I use at home, (you would have to know me to understand) Strong covers everything from muscle to inner soul. I say that word to describe how kids are strorg in that area. Freakishly strong is not being rude or mean. I came up with that word about 7 years ago when I was working with baby's hooked on meth. I always said stuff like this baby is so happy but in pain, its freaky, or this baby will be OK, he has the freaky strong soul. Later on I just kept saying it. I have not said it to any strangers but some of my customers know and there is not a problem. Like I said you would have to know me and the home life to understand everything.Â
Schools don't need to provide sports for anybody. Schools are for LEARNING things like Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic.
 @Jalharad Exactly correct... but if they provide sports for anyone, they don't get to pick and choose. All students must be allowed to participate.
there, but for the grace of God goes thee... Some of you so quick to dismiss the special ed kids and kids with other disabilities as not being deserving of an ability to play some form of high school sports while your "perfect" children get to might be wise to take pause in your smugness... Life can humble you in a heartbeat.Â
@TruthinAdverts There are kids without disabilities that don't have the ability to play sports. Nobody said these kids were perfect but not all kids are the same and so it's pointless to divide them into special groups. If they have the ability then yes, if they don't then no.
 @TruthinAdverts Look at you; sayin' something I agree with!
 @Fooey Patooey! ah, you'll come to love me Fooey... resistance is futile