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Chris Gardner / ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wheelchair athlete Tatyana McFadden, 16, races along side other runners in her first track meet along side able-bodied high school runners in Rockville, Md.
The feds are ordering schools across the country to make "reasonable" changes to sports programs so that disabled students can play — or else create separate teams for them.
The new guidance from the Education Department issued Friday was hailed by advocates for the disabled but denounced by a conservative think-tank that said it could cost big bucks for cash-strapped schools.
"We think it’s huge and historic. In my opinion it could have the same effect, if properly implemented, as Title IX did for women," said Kirk Bauer, executive director of Disabled Sports USA.
Title IX required schools to offer girls and boys the same athletic opportunities and resulted in a huge uptick in female participation in school sports after it took effect 40 years ago.
The new order from the Education Department says athletics is also a civil right for the disabled and schools that don’t protect it could lose federal funding.
Under the latest rules, schools must tweak traditional programs to give qualified disabled students a shot at playing as long as they can do it without fundamentally changing the sport or giving anyone an advantage.
For instance, a visual aid instead of a starter pistol for the deaf runner would be easy to implement, while adding a fifth base to a baseball field to shorten running distances would be considered too big a change.
If alterations to a traditional team aren't feasible, schools must create a sports program that is open to disabled students, the order says. If there aren't enough students, schools should seek to create district-wide, regional or mixed-gender programs.
That part of the directive could be a huge financial burden, said Mike Petrilli, executive vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a right-leaning educational research nonprofit.
“I’m sympathetic to the idea that kids with disabilities should be able to play sports, but this is an incredible example of executive overreach and a huge unfunded mandate,” Petrilli said.
“It’s not clear how far schools have to go. Is wheelchair basketball enough or do they need to have wheelchair tennis and other sports, too?”
Bauer said such concerns are off-base, that schools will not be asked to have a disabled counterpart for every sport.
“It’s not going to be across the board,” he said. “Maybe football is not the sport that is going to be integrated.”
The letter from the feds gives some examples of ways schools can be creative but it does not spell out everything.
Casey Followay, 15, of Wooster, Ohio, who races in a wheelchair alone on his track team, hopes the policy will allow him to go up against runners. “It’s going to give me the chance to compete against kids at my level,” he told the Associated Press.
Lindsay Jones of the Council for Exceptional Children said that since disabilities are so individualized, the response to them needs to be, as well.
“I do thing you’re going to see some case-by-case lawsuits,” she said.
Ron Ingram, a spokesman for the Alabama High School Athletic Association, said he did not expect enormous changes at the school level in his state.
“We already have gone to great lengths to include students with disabilities in a way that it is not detrimental to the fundamental concept of the contest,” he said, pointing to a wrestler with no legs who racked up a 36-14 record in his senior year competing on a traditional team.
He said a wheelchair division at the state track-and-field championships has been a “disappointment,” with not much interest. “A majority of our special-needs students would prefer to compete in the Special Olympics,” he said.
“I think, based on what I’ve read so far, the biggest impact will just remind us all that we do need to go to great lengths to make sure all our students athletes are not discriminated against,” Ingram said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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First of all they are not disabled people or disabled kids.... They are children or people with a disability and for those of you who are ignorant enough to sit here an preach about the fact that these PEOPLE don't deserve a fair chance at equal happiness and opportunity in life... wait and see how your perspective changes when you experience a life altering event or illness. Wait and see how you feel when someone you know has a 'disability'... To be disabled is not to be less or inadequate- if anything to entire sense of the term is wrong... it is to do things different. At some point in all of our lives we will personally experience disability and when that happens think how you will feel when you are told... well you are know a disabled person so you don't actually deserve the rights of 'normal' people. Makes me sick educate your selfs and open your eyes....
They deserve a FAIR CHANCE. They do NOT necessarily "deserve" special accommodations in every aspect of life. Kids get cut from their school teams all the time. Why don't THEY have to be "accommodated?
Schools should have Physical education and Health programs cut out these sports competitions and use the money for other things. If people want regional sporting, privatize it to membership clubs and pay the schools for that use of their activities fields. It will work itself out and the communities can decide what they want.
I'm not sure where you guys live, but I've always had to pay to play sports, so I don't see where money is an issue. I also don't see anything wrong with letting those with a disability to play, if it is deemed safe. And by that I mean....basketball, you don't want anyone in a wheel chair vs. "able" athletes. My daughter has a girl with an artificial leg playing on her team and she's quite good. And there isn't a problem. I think many of you are not understanding the concept here. Track for example. You're missing an arm, you can't play. That's not right. Not right at all and its not fair. If that person is capable of running, wtf difference does it make that they are missing an arm? And if they suck at running and gets cut from the team, then that's just the way it goes, but you can't prevent them from trying from the get go. I believe that that is the point here. Has nothing to do with a liberal agenda or political correctness. Or everyone walks away here with a trophy. Its about fair chances. Get a grip people.
No, YOU are missing the point. This mandate makes NO differentiations WHATOEVER as to teh ability of any particular person to participate in any sport they want to. And if they CAN'T particiapte in a particular sport, than the school MUST provide a comparable opportunity.
Do you have any idea how much this could end up costing? Many states already have outrageous property taxes thanks to runaway education spending. How do you expect people to absorb this financially? And there are going to be a TON of lawsuits because the wording is so vague. which the taxpayers will also get stuck paying for.
If the federal government wants to manadate cr*p like this, they should have to provide the funding as well - and by CUTTING other government spending.
And what about all the kids who get cut from their school teams because they just weren't good enough? Where is THEIR accomodation?
And we have to "pay to play" too - it doesn't come close to covering the actual cost of implementing sporting programs in our schools.
Until there is funding to back it up, I don't want our schools to focus on ANYTHING other than education.
2 years ago our school system lost 66% of its funding.
Last year they cut it by 5%
Already this year, it's dropped another 3%
Doing the math, for every dollar we had for education in 2010, there's now 34¢.
If our Department of Education has the time and resources to tackle such a peripheral topic as fairness for handicapped athletes, then clearly the department is overfunded and out of touch with the current financial climate. In this case, we need to reduce the DOE's administrative budget to 34% of 2010's budget. Perhaps the people in that department will have to do what our schools are doing - focus on the core of their jobs to maintain employment.
Wait until the lawyers get a hold of this one. Schools will either drop sports or spend millions to comply in order to "be fair" - costing us money that we don't have. Oh wait, since the children will be paying for what has already been done, then we can put this one on grand-children and people that are not born yet!
Better yet let's stop keeping score in competition. Then shut all sports down. Don't want to hurt someones feelings.
I'm surprised by the way some people reflexively oppose any attempt to expand opportunity. Giving more disabled athletes a chance to participate in sports seems like a very reasonable thing to do. I'm interested in seeing how it works out.
Apparently many of these people were cut from their HS teams and it has left a bad memory.
Or maybe it's because most intelligent adults KNOW that every time another unfunded government mandate is forced on us, it ends up costing all of us a whole lot of money. This could be a nightmare to implement and many people are ALREADY paying a fortune in property taxes thanks to runaway spending on public education. Get a clue.
Ok, now who are the few disabled athletes going to play against? Not only do they have to come up with a whole team for the school in question they will also need full teams of disabled athletes at other schools to play against. So, the feds have ruled that schools should accomplish the impossible...
It looks to me like the guidelines are very generic and give school districts wide latitude to implement them. We'll figure this out. And it's not like this is some radical new idea -- it's been done before, and lessons have been learned.
John, have you not learned over the years that "generic" Federal guideline are drafted that way because so many politician are either lawyers or have lawyers as supporters. They make the law generic not so the local schools have fexibility, but so the lawyers can stay rich by filing law suits against the school districts. They know that the average jury will be stupid enough to order the School District to pay, after all most people that actually serve on juries do not worry about the very little in additional taxes, if any, that they will have to pay. After all it will be the "rich" folks that the juries think will have to pay for everything.
P.S. I have a couple of lawyers as relatives.
Mike, you might ask your relatives about the difference between a common law system and a civil law system. Then you'd understand why your response is so very off.
How about we actually have programs for the intelligent kids. The genius population. The kids that are always ignored. We have programs for mentally retarded kids. They get ALL the benefits. But the smart kids--the ones who actually will be curing cancer or discovering the latest invention that will change the world are tossed to the side. Spend $4 million on an elevator so a handicap kid can go to the second level of a building to make him happy? Sure. Spend ANY money on smart kids? Nah! They can teach the dumb kids. That will stimulating enough for them.
Are you kidding? Our county has magnet schools for the gifted as well as Honors & AP classes for them. There are science, environmental, legal and more clubs. Which is great. If you don't live in a area that offers this, move; or get involved in your district.
And the elevator is required so that he can take the same classes as everyone else. It is part of ADA and a civil law. You seem to have a real chip on your shoulder.
Chloe4ever: There are many programs for the intelligent kids, and many of them bowled on my high school bowling league. Many intelligent kids play all sorts of sports. I am not in a wheelchair, but I do use the elevator at a school because I am short of breath and older. An elevator is also used when kids break a leg and cannot climb stairs to get to class, so elevators are useful and needed in a school setting. I am sure handicapped kids appreciate the elevators and so do I as do many other women teachers who need to get their heavy teaching materials to the upper floors of a school. Ease up. Everythig works for a purpose.
Chloe4ever, I TOTALLY agree!!! Our district has no gifted program, no AP classes, no after school clubs for kids who excel in math or science or whatever. You can request to have your child evaluated to be moved up a grade, but the school psychologist will not move kids due to her concerns about "social stigmatization of the younger child". But, the kids with learning disabilities that put them behind their classmates get individualized tutoring (provided by the school), separate classes in subjects they struggle with taught by a different teacher (provided by the school), someone to read their tests/write their answers/walk with them from class to class (provided by the school), extra time - days, even - to complete homework and exams in a quieter environment than the classroom (provided by the school). The list goes on and on. When my son needed more advanced math and reading in third grade (a grade ahead in math and two in reading) the district refused. They maintained they were only required to accommodate kids who are "at risk" for failure; there was no obligation to accommodate the kids who knew all the grade-approriate material before the winter break even took place.
When we ignore the needs of the gifted students they are left behind just as surely as the special needs students are when their needs are ignored. Every student should be given every opportunity to rise to their full potential, whether they need a boost to help them keep up or support to help them move ahead.
Zany,
My area has the "magnet " schools also. But if you are not a"minority" you better stay away. The schools are being used as an alternative for minority kids whose parents want them out of the local schools that have in effect become unsafe trash pits due to the way the local parents have raised (actually failed to raise) their kids.
I had a freind who taught in an inner-city school who finally gave up and moved away. She was tired of getting blamed for not educating kids who-(either never showed up, came to school high on drugs or booze, spent most of class talking to friends instead of listening, or some other nonsense that would have resulted in a paddle hitting your butt if you were a kid 40+ years ago.
As a kid everyone got to play in gym class, but it was not considered to be "discriminated" against if you were not talented enough to be on one of the official school teams.
One of our magnet schools is ranked 2nd in the Nation. We have magnet schools for Medical, Marine Science, Bio-tech, Communications and High Tech. These are merit based and hard to get into. Once again, if your schools don't offer what your children need, get involved or in their face.
As to the schools in your area, we checked out the schools when we looked for a house. Paid more for a house in a great district. It was a choice.
How about just doing away with High School sports and have community based sports leagues, funded by the actually participants and not the taxpayers? Public schools face severe budget restrictions and cut backs every year. Time for schools to focus on education, something that will do more good for a kid throughout their life than distant memories of sports achievements.
what about the kid that isn't disabled, just slow and clumsy. This poor sod is going to get left out all the way around.
This is why getting rid of the Federal Department of Education is a good idea.
I'm all for physically/mentally challenged kids competing in sport, but forcing schools to make new teams for a couple of students is crazy! Is the Department of Education going to step in the first time a one legged tennis player knocks his teeth of from falling on the court and the parents sue the school?
The district wide program would probably work, just raise local taxes to cover the costs. I'm sure if each household in the district paid an additional $500 a year in school taxes they could pull it off.
Did you think that with Title IX? Girls can't compete the way boys can, and it costs too much for a girl's team?
Since girls make up a significant portion of most schools, they need their own teams. Since special needs students make up such a small portion of most schools, it's not worth the cost for each school to have a third set of teams. Someone has to pay for these new programs, so you either raise revenue or cut spending on things like reading programs.
I'm sorry to say this, but I foresee some schools doing away with all sports teams do get out of losing federal funding because they can't afford to pay for wheelchair tennis.
This is the problem with becoming dependant on federal entities to pay for day to day operations. Once you get hooked on the money, the Feds can dictate how you spend it. This should be an issue for the States, not the federal government.
Todd, I am pretty sure you were kidding about the raising the taxes on each household by $500. Either you were kidding or you left a zero or two out of your number.
Yeah, but too many zeroes make people's eyes glaze over and they become disinterested since X,000,000,000 is an unreal number. Whereas $500 is just big enough to be painful yet small enough to be believable. If we cared about zeroes, our national debt wouldn't have 12 of them!
Back when Title IX was proposed, it was going to bring all the boys sports down. That didn't happen and it won't now. And it says "reasonable changes".
Some of the comments here are asinine.
My 13 year old child would love to play basketball and I am thrilled he will now have the opportunity! He works harder at EVERYTHING he does. This isn't about liberal or conservative-it's about giving everyone the opportunity to participate. Good stuff.
I am a short white guy, but I am demanding the opportunity to play on the basketball team. You must accommodate me!
Now participating in sports is a civil right? WTH? Before the DeptEd starts on this path, wouldn't improving the quality of education be a more admirable (and needed goal)? Better yet, how about they get the heck out of the way and quit impeding educational improvement.
And the result will be??? Dozens, maybe hundreds of school districts dropping ALL sports teams to avoid having to pay for this "feel good boondoggle". Our Government is not only willing to spend money it doesn't have..., it wants to make everyone else do it as well.
The article said that schools were already doing this and the sky hasn't fallen.
Nobody said "the sky would fall". But an awful lot of regular students are going to miss out on the chance to play high school sports because the districts can't afford to meet this "touchy-feely" requirement. I wish there were no handicapped students..., but the world wasn't that kind. And making accomodation to meet their educational needs is something that must be done. But to ask for outrageously expensive extra-carricular teams to be funded for them is just plain wrong!
All schools also need to include armchair/wheelchair bowling. There is a successful league in the St. Pete area for adults. The bowling league has specific instructions for this sport for these athletes. It needs to be included in all schools as bowling is a sport that does not require a team to participate in and can be a sport for life. The Hillsborough Cty. Bowling Assoc. has teams set up at every bowling house. I am sure that there are wheelchair leagues included, now the schools need to place this program in the schools for those who want to participate. As a former bowling coach of a high school bowling league, I coached many handicapped bowlers and it was a joy to see their faces when they bowled a strike and improved over the course of a year. It is not a waste of the tax payers money as these wheelchair teams can bowl at the bowling houses. I'm sure the schools would have a positive response. Have an instructional class at school and then go to the bowling lanes to practice. It can be done. Don't make fun of these athletes as many have become awesome bowlers, they just need a league of their own instead of participating in a regular bowling league.
CCCAT, it may sound good, but. I do not think any of the local schools have taxpayer fuded bowling lanes on school grounds. My kid bowled on a school team, after school and on weekends. The only cost the school paid for was providing a coach. Who volunteered for the unpaying job. No expense money for her either. When the bowlers needed to travel, it was parents or friends who drove.
BUT with the Feds getting involved you will have Schools forced by the lawyers and courts to spend money they do not have to fund programs because of claims of"discrimination".
School should only have to have tryouts its the "Fair" thing to do, that's what Obamass is all about, right? Fairness is to give each an opportunity,women in the military, gays are just strange humanoids, handicap individuals just an American, black skin individuals are just Americans with a skin tone. Fairness is not pointing out someone is "Special" No guy or girl team just a team best players make the squad! But, then if their is a successful athlete he must give that playing time up to let the less skilled playing time, REDISTRIBUTION !
ANY STUDENT CAN TRY OUT FOR ANY SPORTS THEY SO DESIRE. IF THEY CAN MAKE THE GRADE THEY PLAY. IF THEY CAN NOT CUT IT, NO PLAY.
this IS "disable" OR NOT.
Spending money for sports is not education.
Spend money for them to give access into classrooms. Ramps to enter buildings. Water fountains, rest rooms.
But to make "special means for them in sports, is to open a new can of worms.
Check out the school teams that have made it possible for a "handicap" boy to score a "touchdown" on the field with hundreds of "friends,strangers, and the family" cheering this lad on as he made the last touchdown of the game. Even the opposing team cheer this young man on. Now the GOVERNMENT had noting to do with this. Just the CLASS MATES.
honestly,I thought that was why Special Olympics were organized,for those unable to effectively compete .
Talk about being aptly named...
lets see when Title 9 came in we saw more men's sports being dropped to make room for womens sports due to football taking up most of men's scholarships and the libs are against giving football an exemption. So now colleges have better opportunities for women in sports and unless me play football or basketball they are limited to where they can go to college. Now with disabled added in we will now see women's sports getting cut back to make way for disabled or colleges will eliminate the rest of men's sports and leave just the big 3 football, basketball and baseball. Equal opportunity what a load of crap. Its only equal if someone doesn't loose opportunity.
aren't you SOOOOO glad Obama discovered most of us can't run our own lives
Most of the responses above show high degree of mental disablement. Physically disabled kids need and enjoy exercise just like everyone else. It is also an opportunity for school age children to learn some tolerance for people with physical handicaps. Obviously many of the former varsity and Olympic athletes making unkind, insensitive and inappropriate comments here feel that their vast capabilities would be compromised by having the share the track with someone in a wheel chair. Jerks.
Exercise yes, sports program no.
Wow, what a sick bunch of F*(?!!
Stupid, just stupid. More Obama.
But, but… what if you just plain suck at the sport? Can those people also expect “reasonable changes” so they can play?