Special Olympics New York has announced that Fredonia High School, a school with Special Olympics Unified Champion School® programming, is receiving national banner recognition for its efforts to provide inclusive sports and activities for students with and without intellectual disabilities. FHS is receiving this distinguished status as a result of meeting 10 national standards of excellence in the areas of inclusion, advocacy, and respect.
Unified Coach Julie Sanders, calls the program “life-changing: “Unified is one of the most exciting things to happen in a school, ever. The inclusivity and fun it has brought to our school culture is life-changing for many of our students and staff.”
The primary activities within these standards include Special Olympics Unified Sports® where students with and without disabilities train and compete as teammates, inclusive youth leadership, and whole school engagement. National banner schools should also demonstrate they are self-sustainable or have a plan in place to sustain these activities into the future.
The Unified Champion Schools® model is a strategy for schools Pre-K through university that intentionally promotes meaningful social inclusion by bringing together students with and without intellectual disabilities to create accepting school environments, utilizing three interconnected components: Unified Sports, inclusive youth leadership, and whole school engagement. As many as 16 million young people are taking part in inclusive experiences through Special Olympics.
“I have really enjoyed Unified Sports because it is a chance for everyone to have a set group of friends, and no matter what their school day looks like they can come to a positive environment where there are people who are there for them,” shares student Charles Domenico.
More than 340 schools are currently participating in Unified Champion Schools® programming in New York, as part of 10,000 schools across the country including 49 states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, engaged in the program. The Unified Champion Schools® strategy aims to expand to 20,000 schools by 2030.
The Unified Champion Schools® model is supported by the Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education. This model has been proven, through research, to be an effective and replicable means to providing students with and without disabilities the opportunity to form positive social relationships and promote a socially inclusive school climate.
“Unified Sports opened doors for our son that we thought had been long shut! Before Unified bowling, our son had never played on a team and we never dreamed that to be a possibility for him. Now he plays all three Unified sports,” says Naomi McKnatt, parent of a Fredonia Unified athlete.
