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Friday, April 11, 2008

Equal opportunities in school sports, physical education in Maryland

Saw this on Patricia Bauer's blog a few moments ago and since it's a followup on a story I covered here, I'm going to blog about it, with due credit to her. Thanks, Patricia!

Good news out of Maryland - the General Assembly has passed a bill giving disabled athletes equal access to school sports and physical education. Tatyana McFadden, the Paralympic athlete who sued the school to compete on their track team, was behind the legislation.

The Maryland General Assembly passed a bill Monday night that will require county boards of education to allow students with disabilities to have equal opportunities to participate in physical education programs and on mainstream athletic teams.

The Fitness and Athletics Equity for Students with Disabilities Act came about in part because of Tatyana McFadden, 18, a wheelchair athlete from Atholton High in Howard County. During her high school track career McFadden has fought, twice in court, for inclusion in races and for the right to have wheelchair races count in the team standings.

via washingtonpost.com

The bill will go into effect on July 1 and school districts will have 3 years to implement the changes.




h/t Patricia Bauer

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