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."
We need new rules for this? It wasn't that long ago that my DD was in high school and participating in many sports. I don't recall anyone being excluded from tryouts. Anyone was allowed to try-out for a position on the team. Those with the skills made the team. Sounds pretty fair to me. Disabled kids were not excluded from tryouts. Wait a minute, I get it, the PC and equal opp crowd out there want to put our competitive school athletes at a disadvantage from an opportunity at winning that state title! Must be the same crowd that wants to teach young athletes that there are no winners or losers (by not allowing the teams to keep score in a competition). All this does for the kids is to ill prepare them for lifes little mishaps. If they never learn to lose gracefully, they will never be able to handle all the crap that life can throw at them. Way to prepare our kids for the future!
 @wonderingÂ
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I agree.
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In junior high there was a kid with CP. He was a nice guy, and while his condition meant he could not run, he had a mean dead pull hit that meant he could reach base 100% of the time.
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He also was the second most often hit batter (I was most often hit) on the team. He was our secret ringer.
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Steve would go up to bat (he was DH when permitted or he batted pinch, his inability to run meant he didn't play the field often) and the other team would be confused and they would even start laughing.
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Well his first at bat he would either get walked, or clobber the ball to a walk off double, or ground rule double (depending on the availability of a fence). If he got a second at bat, he was either hit, or walked. If there was a third he always walked (who wants to hit the CP kid twice?). The way he held the bat and his condition made him a dead-pull hitter that could just tear the laces off.
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Pretty advanced cerebral paisley and this 12 year old had a 900 batting average.
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You don't need special rules to be able to compete. You just need to try hard. The rules always meet you where your ability is if you try hard enough.
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I wonder how many exemptions the bigger schools get. Somehow I'm willing to bet these are a ton of loopholes schools with huge sports programs will be able to take advantage of.
@axpman   Shouldn't need "exemptions". Allow all interested kids to tryout for a team - some make it and some don't. It takes skill to have a winning team.
Good for the Department of Education. Everyone should have access to sports, regardless of handicapping conditions, if they so desire. Just like they should have equal access to an education. I guess that those that don't like this idea can take their kids to private schools that don't have to accomodate students with special needs, either in the classroom or on the athletic field.Â
@peckishpete  The problem is, how they are "accomodating students with special needs" is hurting the majority of the student population by "dumbing down" the cirriculum (sp). These kids can tryout for the teams and if they don't have the skills, they don't make the team. What is the problem with that? I have no problem if the school system wants to set up a special league for these kids, but don't force the regular students to accept a team player "just because". Remember, the point of having a competitive team sport is to allow the talented athletes to COMPETE to the best of their ability.
I agree. I am sure there are still some dumbass coaches out there who are stupid enough to turn away a person without a tryout - and this is hopefully meant for them. However, what you describe is bound to happen when some parent who want to be an ass and cannot deal with the fact that thier kid - disabled or not, bad athelete or not - did not make the team.
A better idea would be to teach young, aspiring athletes and future coaches and PE teachers to mentor and coach these kids (under adult supervision) so that they learn the lessons of leadership and humanity, and realize how lucky the are just to be a "normal" kid.Sucks that I have to pay taxes to people who complain about after-school sports being cut, when I pay tuition to a parochial school for my child, and you have to pay extra for after-school sports. I'm not wealthy by any stretch, but, I'm certainly okay with my property taxes supporting public programs such as this because these kids deserve every chance they can get. Another step forward.
Well there goes wrestling.
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There is no way schools can support that many sports or make that much of a consolation to students without cutting from somewhere. Sports with fewer participants will end up being the loser much like what happened under title IX.
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Not that I take issue with school making "reasonable accommodation" like a visual starter for the hearing impaired. But that's the tip of the iceberg. Once you require "accommodation" you will eventually get some bizarre requirements that schools won't be able to support.
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As it stands now, high school sported is nearly fully funded by players and their families (my nephew pays hundreds to play football each year not including equipment).
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I suggest doing away with school sports if this becomes an issue. Private organizations (at least for now) have the right to require some fundamental ability to decide who can play and who can't based on capability.
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 @Repoman Yep the law that they have to spend equal on women sports has already taken it's toll because there just are not as many girls interested in doing sports as boys. So the only way to make up the difference is to cut boys teams...
 @Repoman Also before I get idiots smacking me around I have two girls that have been in multiple sports there entire life so I do have a dog in the fight the other way but still think these kind of blanket rules made by idiots who really don't know what they are doing are not always good.
 @Repoman Repoman, are you human at all, or are you just some senseless , uncaring, self righteous, self absorbed individual?
 @lee986321Â
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Sometimes reality is not kind.
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There is not enough money to pay for the high school sports we have now. As the "slippery slope" people will attest to, once you "ADA" something, the steps to absurdity are an eventuality.
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10% (all of the "good spaces" with 3 van spaces that take up three space) of Home Depot's parking space are perpetually empty. People with disabilities aren't big DIY folks. It makes no sense.
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And that i don't even take an issue with. how about the fact that there are schools where no where in the school is there allowed peanut butter sandwiches because of ONE CHILD with an allergy.
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As we race to the bottom we make more and more exceptions to the rule until the rule no longer exists.
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I have nothing against anyone competing in any way. But they must compete. Not everyone gets a trophy. Wanting to play does not mean you should play. That is the nature of competition.
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There appears to exist a desire to remove all meritocracies from the world.
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