IHS named Unified Champion School by Special Olympics

On Sept. 9, Ithaca High School was recognized nationally by the Special Olympics as a Unified Champion School. IHS Unified, an athletics program for differently abled students, is entering its third year, and IHS was one of nine schools in New York to receive the Unified Champion School designation. According to the Special Olympics, this is the highest national honor a school could receive, and it recognizes leadership in creating an inclusive school community.

A lot of hard work has gone into growing the program in a short amount of time. Originally, the program just had a basketball team. Now, there is a bowling team and unified physical education classes. The next step is expanding the program into middle school.

Stephanie Valletta, the IHS Unified coach and youth adviser, is a big part of that. She discussed what the honor means to her as the program enters its third year.

“It’s validation, really, that we’re on the right track as far as the work that we’re doing in our schools,” Valletta said. “It’s always nice to have validation that the work that you’re doing to make sure that our kids feel good and connected to their peers and friends. It’s important, and we know that it’s a must for our community, especially right now, but to have a national recognition like this means that we have a program in place that’s sustainable.”

Valletta explained what exactly Ithaca is doing to deserve the honor and that national recognition. A big part of that is a strong youth activation committee that features regularly abled students who help push the program forward.

“We have kids that are really very passionate about including everyone and making sure that everyone has access to a high school experience that maybe we all just take for granted,” Valletta said. “I think that these young people are really motivated. They are always coming to me with ways to connect. We have kids that are very social-justice minded, for lack of a better word. These kids just really care about their community. They care about each other. It’s what sets us apart.”

Horseheads also received the national recognition and is a regular opponent of IHS Unified. Valletta discussed what it means to have two Section IV schools recognized by the Special Olympics in regard to the growth of unified sports in the area.

“Section IV was one of the last in the state to add [unified sports],” Valletta said. “But I think it was so needed. So, while we might have been late to the party across the state, so to speak, I think that around the Southern Tier, [the growth is] pretty clear just with the level of engagement. You start out with nine teams or 13 teams, and you go to however many. I think we’re up to 20 or something, and every team does it so well.”

Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting everyone and limits what the unified program is able to do this year. However, IHS has received great guidance on how to keep students engaged.

“Honestly, the Special Olympics folks and the program that they provide, they have so many resources for ideas about weekly challenges and things like that — bigger issue, bigger ideas about how to stay connected during distance learning,” Valletta said. “It’s very clear that the Special Olympics people are forward-thinking. They make it very easy to provide this programming. They provide the support and they’re such good communicators with us.”

Ithaca met the 10 pillars of excellence that the Special Olympics judged schools by, and Valletta detailed how they went about meeting some of those requirements.

“[Unified sports are] recognized the same way as every other club in our school,” Valletta said. “It’s promoted like every other club in the school and basically says that it’s part of the fabric of our community here. You also have to talk about some whole-school engagement opportunities so that your unified sports teams are recognized and appreciated in the same way. … Everything that we use for every other sport we offer is everything that we use for unified sports.”

Moving forward, ensuring that the unified program is here to stay will involve growth in the school district beyond just the high school.

“Our hope when we’re talking about sustainability is that you can never be complacent,” Valletta said. “I feel really good about where we are at the high school. Now, we’ll try and branch out to the middle schools and make sure that they have their own unified sports club and that they are trying to include more on a daily basis.”

IHS Unified has been doing a fantastic job promoting inclusion in the Ithaca City School District and received worthy recognition. Now, the task is to maintain engagement until unified sports are able to be played once again.