Facing Hurdles : Special Education Track Program Seeks Funds

An experiment allowing special education students to participate side by side with other high school athletes has become everything its supporters hoped: a program that has coaches, teachers and students singing its praises.

But five years after the city’s Section AA track program athletes began competing against each other in high school meets, the future of the program is still uncertain because it lacks a permanent funding source, Los Angeles Unified School District officials said.

The district supported the program for the first few years. When the budget dwindled and the program was about to be cut, Special Olympics International stepped in with a $250,000 grant to fund the program and other efforts for two years. The grant expired in June, school officials said.

“We are trying to find funding to replace the grant money,” said Beverly Watkins, director of special education programs for LAUSD. “Everybody is diligently working on it.”

The annual cost is $36,000, including $15,000 for a dozen coaches’ salaries, $19,000 for buses to shuttle the special education students home from campus, and about $2,000 for awards and equipment, school officials said.

The Food for Less Foundation donated $1 million to the cash-strapped LAUSD for high school athletics this year, but school officials have not decided whether those funds can be used for the AA track program, said Bill Rivera, a spokesman for LAUSD.

In the program, special education students compete in the 100-meter dash, the long jump, high jump and shot put.

During meets, they wear the same uniforms as their high school track team, ride the team bus and can earn varsity letters. They practice twice a week, and top contenders in league and conference championships go to the city finals on the same day as the other athletes.

The intent, say supporters, is to allow special education students to mingle with other students, something that rarely happens in the classroom.

“Until they work together, they will never get to know about each others’ lives,” said Barbara Fiege, LAUSD director of interscholastic athletics. “Athletics are for all students, whether they are handicapped or not.”

Similar programs for special education students recently started in New York, Miami, Kansas City, San Antonio, Milwaukee and Cleveland, in an effort to meet the Special Olympics’ goal of doubling the 1 million athletes worldwide who participated in its activities this year.

Last May, 175 athletes from 18 schools met at Birmingham High School for the city finals.

Fiege said it was there that she realized the program’s full impact.

“(Spectators) were just as interested when an AA race began and would cheer even more because they could really see from (the athletes’) faces how much it meant to them,” Fiege said.

But more importantly, Fiege said, is the effect on the special education athletes.

“I like running fast,” said Curtis Wang, a sophomore member of the Granada Hills High AA team who took fourth place in the high jump at the city finals. “I like the long jump best because you can jump into the sand. It feels good.”

Others agreed.

“They’re beautiful kids to work with,” said Obbie Brown, the Sylmar High track coach for the past 18 years, about the mentally and physically handicapped students in the program. “They’re very, very lovable, and (the program) is a big benefit to them.”

Officials say the LAUSD program has blossomed into one of the country’s most successful.

“It’s really becoming our model program to show the rest of the world how it’s done,” said Troy Greisen, the western U.S. regional director for Special Olympics International.

“We’ve really grown,” agreed Pat Harvey, the program’s Los Angeles director.

Harvey has been with the program since its inception five years ago, when Special Olympics International officials approached then-City Commissioner Hal Harkness with a proposal to start the program in Los Angeles, which would provide an ideal backdrop with its diverse cityscape.

But Harvey had to overcome some obstacles.

“First of all, we had to convince the schools and the coaches that this was not necessarily going to infringe on them directly,” Harvey said. “And we had to get busing so transportation would not be difficult.”

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Gradually, the Valley Pac-8 Conference, a league in the LAUSD’s high school sports teams, was added to the program and the response from schools was excellent. Harvey said five of the eight schools in the league developed teams, led by conference champion Sylmar with 28 athletes. Granada Hills of the Northwest Valley Conference also fielded a team this season.

At a dinner this summer for representatives from participating schools, the event ran two hours past its scheduled close as coaches and administrators told story after story of kids helped by the program.

“It’s the highlight of these kids’ year,” said Harvey.

And she and others remain optimistic.

“I think it will continue on,” Greisen said. “In five years, it has ingrained itself into the school system. Once the community realizes that we want to focus on these athletes’ capabilities rather than their disabilities, it will become an integral part of the varsity sport system.”