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A typical public school system includes a significant number of students with disabilities, often up to 10 percent of the total enrollment. Limited opportunity for athletic participation is provided to students with disabilities, a circumstance many parents have begun to challenge. These challenges have reached the federal courts and the implications of recent decisions are forcing local public schools systems (LSS) to evaluate how they are athletically accommodating students with disabilities.

Local public school systems have accommodated students with disabilities under the auspices of four major laws. These include the 2004 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504), the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), and state and local codes. Each of these includes regulations and provisions for the participation of individuals with disabilities.

The 1999 IDEA regulations define “nonacademic services and extracurricular activities” and include athletics in the definitions (34 CFR 3000.306(b)). Section 504 regulations also include athletics in their definitions (34 CFR 104.3(a)(2)).

Participation in athletics is not a required component of a student’s free and appropriate education (FAPE). However, the 2004 IDEA regulations (34 CFR 300.17) require local public school systems to provide nonacademic and extracurricular services and activities in a way that affords students with disabilities an equal opportunity for participation in those services and activities. Neither IDEA nor Section 504 considers participation in athletics a FAPE issue. Both do consider participation as an issue of nondiscrimination, accessibility and equal opportunity.

A Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) Workgroup recently interpreted the letter and intent of these laws and regulations to mean that local school systems have a responsibility to affirmatively act to ensure the inclusion of students with disabilities in interscholastic athletics to the maximum extent possible. These affirmative actions would ensure access, as well as increase the number of students with disabilities participating in athletics. Students with disabilities may not be excluded from participation purely on the basis of their disability.

Finally, courts consider it the legal duty to make “reasonable accommodations” to a public school system’s participation requirements. Three categories of requested modifications have been generally considered patently “unreasonable.” They are:

1. Fundamental Alterations of the athletic activity or the impairment of the purpose of the regulation.
2. Undue Financial or Administrative Burden imposed on the governing body or school system making the application of the rule impractical.
3. Safety risks to the health or safety of the person with the disability or participants.(4)