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Special Olympics Montana Launches Flathead Reservation Pilot Project

New tribal outreach director position created to help schools develop ‘Unified Champion’ standards

By Clare Menzel

After noticing that few students from schools on the Flathead Reservation were participating in statewide Special Olympics games, officials with Special Olympics Montana (SOMT) launched a three-year pilot initiative in early 2016 to improve accessibility and boost attendance.

They created a new tribal outreach director position, hiring Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes member April Charlo in January to help teachers and administrators at the 18 schools in the Polson, Ronan, Charlo, St. Ignatius, and Dixon districts support athletes and develop Special Olympics teams. The pilot project has received support from elected officials on both sides of the aisle, including U.S. Sens. Steve Daines and Jon Tester, Gov. Steve Bullock, Attorney General Tim Fox, and Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau.

Some athletes with intellectual disabilities from Polson have attended past Montana Special Olympics games, but the pilot project’s particular aim is to help schools introduce Unified Champion Schools standards, which integrate students both with and without intellectual disabilities on the same team. In a team sport like track and field, a unified team might include three athletes with intellectual disabilities, and one without.

The goal for the pilot project, which has nearly $350,000 of funding through state and national grants, is to help teachers and administrators at 10 schools become Unified Champions. To become certified as a Special Olympics Unified Champion School, the school must demonstrate youth leadership, inclusive sports and fitness activity, and whole-school involvement.

“What I’m hoping is to reach 10 schools fairly quickly,” Charlo said. “And after that, really help the schools establish sustainability, so when the grant project is completed, the programs are stable and standing strong so they can continue forever … It’s about bringing inclusive activities to students, and opportunities for them to bridge relationships with each other and create friendships.”

Special Olympics Unified programs are beneficial for all students, said Kris Kelly, Special Olympics coach and special education teacher at Polson High School, which has a strong existing Special Olympics program that already incorporates regular-education students. It’s the closest to becoming the first Unified Champion School on the reservation, according to Charlo. The school has sent students to Special Olympics events for more than eight years, and this academic year, there are eight students in the program from both the high and middle schools.

Kelly has long advocated for inclusion, something she realized the importance of while raising her now-23-year-old daughter, Kiya, who has an intellectual disability.

“I have fought for inclusion since my daughter started in school,” Kelly said. “She was put in a separate classroom and there was no inclusion … Unified says, ‘This (Special Olympics) is okay,’ and that their sport is no different. It allows athletes to show off to their regular-ed peers, because they don’t have that opportunity very often.”

Special Olympics athletes in Polson have a uniform like the other students, and they are welcomed at school-wide sports events like the pep rally. This inclusion, Kelly said, works to validate and legitimize their efforts. It also helps them become valued members of the larger Polson community, which is essential for students who, after graduation, may not pursue higher education or a career.

Participation in Special Olympics athletics, in general, helps special-education students with flexibility, motor skills, and alertness, and teaches them lifelong sports.

Kelly says she’s also seen a positive response from regular-education students in her Special Olympics program.

“Almost every single one of them has said the same thing, that it changes their perspective on life,” she said. “(They see) these kids with all these issues, and they’re not complaining that their hair looks crappy or that so-and-so didn’t say hello. You realize that the little things in life are more important. You take those hugs in the hallway.”

And while Kelly says she’s had immense support from her administrators, “everything we do is costly,” from traveling to events to purchasing equipment, and that running Polson’s high school program demands a significant volunteer time commitment, two hurdles the SOMT program hopes to clear in the next three years.

“It doesn’t feel like schools don’t want to do it,” Charlo said of the schools that don’t yet have a Unified Special Olympics program. “But if your plate is already full, and you want to do it, how much energy and time is it going to take to figure it out? I’m here to support you through it all the way, 100 percent.”