NJ Education Report

Update on Rights of Kids with Disabilities to Participate in School Sports Program: was it only last week that the U.S. DOE’s Office of Civil Rights released a 13-page set of “guidelines” clarifying schools’ responsibilities to provide access to afterschool activities for special needs kids?

That issuance provoked gales of joy from special education advocates and stentorian harrumphing from more conservative columnists. (Here’s my take, which includes links to other commentary, including Mike Petrelli of Fordham Foundation, who came up with the line in the title of this post.)

Never mind. According to Education Week’s Christina Samuels, the fireworks generated by these guidelines alarmed the Office of Civil Rights enough to issue a clarification to the clarification:

Seth M. Galanter, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said that the guidance neither breaks new ground nor mandates new policy for the states that did not previously exist. During an interview, he pointed to a footnote in the guidance that says it is not adding requirements to applicable law. 

Mr. Galanter also said that while the bulk of the guidance document offers examples of where the civil rights office would or would not find violations, the portion that talks about offering different or separate activities does not prescribe any penalties. 

“The guidance does not say that there is a right to separate or parallel sports programs,” Mr. Galanter said. Instead, the guidance urges—but does not require—that when inclusion is not possible, school districts find other ways to give students with disabilities the opportunity to take part in extracurricular athletics, he said.