Education Department Says HS/College Sports Must now Accomodate Disabled

[RETIREDFAN1]

http://news.yahoo.com/sports-civil-disabled-us-says-050851263--politics.html

WASHINGTON (AP) — Breaking new ground, the U.S. Education Department is telling schools they must include students with disabilities in sports programs or provide equal alternative options. The directive, reminiscent of the Title IX expansion of athletic opportunities for women, could bring sweeping changes to school budgets and locker rooms for years to come.

Schools would be required to make "reasonable modifications" for students with disabilities or create parallel athletic programs that have comparable standing as mainstream programs.

[KirtFalcon]

hogwash

[Justsaying]

About time

[RETIREDFAN1]

What sports will have to be cut from small schools so that they can follow this mandate???

[grandbirdie]

ok I am a QMRP (Qualified Mental Retardation Professional) and yeah I've heard all the jokes and this is RIDICULOUS!!! I can see maybe making locker rooms accessible (if they are not already) but jeeze you can take a good thing too far. The expense to schools and other students would be enormous. So as I read it, Mildred would have to find a sport relative to our football/basketball/baseball programs and fund/promote/train for say Special Olympics softball/basketball/track etc. Most schools have these programs integrated into their Special Ed programs. If we are talking making these equal, you are starting off wrong because there are fewer "differently abled" students therefore trying to make the programs equal is ridiculous. You will find no stronger advocate for the differently abled than ME and this is just plain STUPID!!!!

[RickyTheNatureBoyFlair]

If they require University's to do this I'm checking my NCAA elgibility status. I'm working on a .....scholarship!

[donniebarnwell]

This is gonna give Title 9 a run for its money as the biggest travesty in the history of amateur athletics

[Justsaying]

Grand birdie you misspelled ridiculous. There isn't an "e" in ridiculous.

[grandbirdie]

sry i was mad didn't even ck it. but it's still ridiculous and stupid. also left an "e" out of a word. just shows how . . err . . nvm can't believe this.

[Wild74]

What are they going to do cut your education funds off...Funding comes from the state and local, just ignore the ####.

[OLEMAN]

$$

[BuckNut]

Special Olympics should meet this criteria. It is a great program that all schools should have. I think I remember reading that Gilmer's special olympics relay team won state. I am not joking it is something these kids can work hard at and be proud of. Some of the team sports are hard to do in special olympics because of numbers and ability levels.

[grandbirdie]

I'm a certified bowling, track and field, softball S.O. coach. I know what's involved. Thing is, most of these events are run and trained for by local ARC's and some schools participate greatly and some not so much. If the school district isn't involved and doesn't have the staff trained then the students don't participate to the extent the "regular" sports are supported by the schools. As to funding, yes the majority of funding comes from state and local, but you'd be surprised how much is pass through from the feds especially in the Special Ed department. At least most districts have moved away from using Special Ed funds to pay coaches to teach Special Ed it just to have more coaches. We have come a long long way in helping these kids but I don't think "punishing" our "regular" sports programs is the way to go. js.