The Obama administration has issued a groundbreaking directive requiring school districts to provide equal extracurricular athletic opportunities for students with disabilities, in compliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
In a letter to schools in late January, Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Seth Galanter of the U.S. Department of Education wrote that schools must provide “reasonable modifications” to allow these students to participate in after-school sports. The letter comes two-and-a-half years after a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation that found students with disabilities participated in athletics at consistently lower rates than students without disabilities.
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.
If a district cannot meet the needs of these students in their existing athletics programs, the district must create different athletic opportunities for them. In such instances, districts must provide support equal to that furnished to the districts’ other athletic programs and teams. Alternatively, districts could develop districtwide or regional teams.
In its directive, OCR strongly encourages districts to work with families, advocacy and community organizations, and athletic associations to find creative ways to expand extracurricular opportunities for students with disabilities. In 2011, the USDOE issued a 24-page resource document designed to help districts in this endeavor.
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