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Health & Fitness

Extra-curricular Athletics and Students with Disabilities By Ira M. Fingles, Esq.

The United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) recently released a groundbreaking directive requiring school districts to provide equal extracurricular athletic opportunities for students with disabilities. The directive explains that school districts must fulfill their responsibilities by providing extracurricular athletic opportunities in compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504).

Section 504 requires school districts (public schools and charter schools) to provide a student with a disability an equal opportunity to participate in, and benefit from, the programs that the district offers to students without disabilities.

Section 504 does not say that every student with a disability has an automatic entitlement to participate in extracurricular athletics. Districts can still require that students demonstrate a certain skill level in order to participate in extracurricular athletics. Section 504 makes it clear, however, that the selection or competition criteria cannot be discriminatory. This general requirement has multiple specific implications:

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  1. School districts cannot rely upon stereotypes or generalizations in assessing whether a student with a disability has the skill level necessary to participate in the athletic activity. Rather, an individualized determination of each student’s actual skill level is required. In other words, a school district can require all students (with or without a disability) to try out and be assessed on his or her actual skill level and nothing more.
  2. If a school district offers extracurricular athletic opportunities, it must also provide equal opportunities for students with disabilities to participate. In order to do this, a district must make reasonable modifications and provide aides and services necessary in order for students with disabilities to have an equal opportunity to participate in extracurricular athletics. A district can avoid providing modifications only if it can show that providing them will fundamentally alter the game or give an unfair advantage to a student with a disability over other players. (For example, adding an extra hoop in basketball, or giving a batter an extra strike in baseball.) OCR’s directive makes clear that although schools may try to argue that a modification would be an undue burden to its program, such defense is rarely, if ever, successful.
  3. School districts must ensure equal opportunities for students with a disability to participate to the same extent as typically developing students, and they must be allowed to participate to the maximum extent appropriate. Therefore, it is discriminatory to provide different sports leagues or services for students with disabilities that are separate from those of students without disabilities — if such separation is not necessary. However, when the interests and abilities of some students with disabilities cannot be met by the district’s existing extracurricular athletics program, the school district should create additional opportunities for students with disabilities.

The big picture?

Students with disabilities must be afforded an equal opportunity to receive the benefits of extracurricular athletics. If a district cannot meet the needs of students with disabilities in their existing athletics programs, the district must create different athletic opportunities for students with disabilities. In such instances, districts must provide equal support as is furnished to the districts’ other athletic programs and teams. Alternatively, districts could develop district-wide or regional teams. Districts can seek technical assistance, guidance, training and support from organizations that have provided competitive sports programs for individuals with disabilities, such as Special Olympics. In its directive, OCR strongly encourages districts to work with families, advocacy and community organizations, and athletic associations to find creative ways to create and expand extracurricular opportunities for students with disabilities.

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Parents of students who wish to participate in extracurricular athletics should be sure to incorporate requests for modifications as well as the specific modifications required in a student’s IEP or 504 plan during their next meeting, if not sooner. 

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