Commitment to Inclusion

Unified Champion Schools is a strategy to activate students, engage educators, and promote school communities of acceptance and inclusion where all young people are agents of change. Utilizing the sports and education initiatives of Special Olympics, students and faculty in Unified Champion Schools:

– Foster respect and dignity for people with intellectual disabilities
– Change actions and attitudes among their peers without intellectual disabilities

Unified Champion Schools is funded by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs and Special Olympics Minnesota. For over 50 years, Special Olympics Minnesota has evolved as more than an organization focused on just delivering sports training and competition for individuals with intellectual disabilities. We have become a part of a global movement relevant to all of us, where, through inclusive programming, young people with and without intellectual disabilities engage together using sports as the platform for community change and social impact.

As a Unified Champion School, you agree to participate in the following initiatives:

– Create an inclusive student leadership club that provides students with and without intellectual disabilities opportunities to promote Unified Champion Schools activities in the school and in the community
– Host at least 1 social inclusion campaign
– Provide the opportunity for at least 1 Unified sporting opportunity within your school
– Add the Special Olympics Minnesota Unified Champion Schools logo to printed materials, t-shirts, etc.
– Commit 1 teacher or staff member to be a Unified Champion Schools liaison—a point of contact for all Unified Champion Schools activities who will advise the students in projects, events and reports along with a leadership team made up of key faculty from various departments, student leaders and family members.
– Provide Special Olympics Minnesota with participant number reports along with pictures, stories and videos related to any Unified activities.
– Opt into receiving UCS newsletters as well as other relevant emails.

It is understood that Special Olympics Minnesota will provide:

– A partnership to help schools provide quality sporting opportunities for students with disabilities (section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, IDEA and ESSA)
– Consultation, education, support and resource assistance for all sporting programs and activities that promote inclusion, acceptance, respect and dignity for all students
– Resources to support school-based Unified Champion Schools activities
– Leadership training and networking for educational leaders and students
– Guidance on Special Olympics Minnesota and Unified Champion Schools policies and procedures, training manuals, schedules, paperwork and other initiative information

In addition, the school delegation may choose to raise and expend funds under the name of Special Olympics Minnesota. The delegation school liaison will comply with the Centralized Accounting policies as determined necessary by the state office. All monies raised and expended in the name of Special Olympics Minnesota will be documented according to accounting policies and procedures set by the state office.