from Special Olympics:
US Department of Education Guidance
On 1/25/13, the United States Department of Education (DOE) released new guidance to schools and school systems throughout the nation that receive federal aid about the requirements of providing quality sports opportunities for students with disabilities. While the guidance does not make new law, it does identify the responsibilities that schools and school systems have under section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. The key messages in the new guidance could be summarized as the following:
• Every school child with a disability must be evaluated as an individual relative to their sports and physical activity participation. No generalizations about the ability of a child or children who have disabilities in the same category are permissible.
• Reasonable accommodations for children with disabilities to participate in sports activities are required; the basic nature of a sport does not need to be compromised under this guidance, but where reasonable accommodations do not alter the nature of the sport, they should be made.
• School districts and schools must provide aids and services to enable students with disabilities to participate if the lack of such aids and services would not permit participation.
•Exclusion of students from sports activities is not permissible. Therefore, if children with disabilities cannot be accommodated within existing programs, alternatives need to be developed.
• Acknowledging that there are safety issues involved in youth sports, schools need to determine if adjustments in existing programs can be reasonably accomplished without creating real safety issues for other students that cannot be mitigated. This would be a rationale for creating separate sporting opportunities for youth with disabilities in such instances.
