What is Unified Sports?
The Unified Champion Schools® approach incorporates the three components of Special Olympics Unified Sports, inclusive youth leadership and whole school engagement activities to ensure that all students can be involved and meaningfully contribute to their school culture. Unified Sports joins people with and without intellectual disabilities on the same team. It was inspired by a simple principle: training together and playing together is a quick path to friendship and understanding. Inclusive youth leadership is when young people of all abilities are given opportunities to be leaders in their schools and communities. These leadership activities help students find their voices and teach them to become change agents in their communities by promoting equity and acceptance. Whole School Engagement activities positively impact school climate by including all students, teachers, staff, administrators. School-wide opportunities focused on social inclusion raise awareness and create an educational environment where respect and acceptance are the norm and all students feel included and engaged. Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools® builds on Special Olympics’ values, principles, practices, experiences and impacts to shape a generation that welcomes everyone.
https://www.specialolympics.org/what-we-do/youth-and-schools/unified-champion-schools
Pearl River is excited to offer this opportunity to both our in district students and students who live in the community but attend other state approved schools that meet their individual needs.
Both Bowling and Basketball have been introduced as new unified sports teams.