Disabilities and High School Athletes

An announcment this week from the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, applies directly to youth athletics, even or perhaps especially at the high school level.

"Today, the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights issued guidance clarifying school districts' existing legal obligations to provide equal access to extracurricular athletic activities to students with disabilities. In addition to explaining those legal obligations, the guidance urges school districts to work with community organizations to increase athletic opportunities for students with disabilities, such as opportunities outside of the existing extracurricular athletic program. Extracurricular athletics—which include club, intramural, or interscholastic (e.g., freshman, junior varsity, varsity) athletics at all education levels—are an important component of an overall education program."

The WIAA, the member schools of the WIAA, and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction have been including students with disabilities in the sports offered:  “In 1985, the Wisconsin Legislature enacted section 118.13, Wis. Stats., which prohibits discrimination in public schools on the basis of sex, race, religion, national orgin, ancestry, creed, pregnancy, marital or parental status, sexual orientation, or physical mental, emotional, or learning disability.  State courts have also created law regarding students' civil rights as courts reviewed cases under section 118.13, Wis. Stats., and the equal protection clause of the Wisconsin Constitution.”  (http://www.wiaawi.org/Portals/0/PDF/nondiscrimination.pdf)

Member schools are advised to follow the guidelines provided by the Office of Civil Rights:  http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201301-504.pdf.  

A summary of the five main points of the guidance are:  1) judge each athlete as an individual; 2) provide opportunity with modification (which does not change the game or provide an unfair advantage); 3) provide needed aids which extend to after-school programming; 4) inclusion with able-bodied, although separate, but equal may be acceptable such as separate parallel programming; and 5) expand inclusion, but the best players are still chosen

In other girls rugby news, the Northern California girls conference began their 2013 season with their annual season kickoff tournament.  Word on the street is that the Sacremento Amazons, a national contender, won all their matches against the likes of Mother Lode, Dixon, and Bishop O' Dowd high school.  While it's only pre-season, some are taking it as a statement given the likes of the strong competition in Nor Cal.