Word reminder USDE to students with disabilities (Part II)

II. Do Not Act On Generalizations and Stereotypes
A school district may not operate its program or activity on the basis of generalizations,
assumptions, prejudices, or stereotypes about disability generally, or specific disabilities
in particular. A school district also may not rely on generalizations about what students
with a type of disability are capable of—one student with a certain type of disability may
not be able to play a certain type of sport, but another student with the same disability
may be able to play that sport.
Example 1: A student has a learning disability and is a person with a disability as defined
by Section 504. While in middle school, this student enjoyed participating in her
school’s lacrosse club. As she enters the ninth grade in high school, she tries out and is

selected as a member of the high school’s lacrosse team. The coach is aware of this
student’s learning disability and believes that all students with the student’s particular
learning disability would be unable to play successfully under the time constraints and
pressures of an actual game. Based on this assumption, the coach decides never to play
this student during games. In his opinion, participating fully in all the team practice
sessions is good enough.
Analysis: OCR would find that the coach’s decision violates Section 504.
The coach denied this student an equal opportunity to participate on the
team by relying solely on characteristics he believed to be associated
with her disability. A school district, including its athletic staff, must not
operate on generalizations or assumptions about disability or how a
particular disability limits any particular student. Rather, the coach
should have permitted this student an equal opportunity to participate in
this athletic activity, which includes the opportunity to participate in the
games as well as the practices. The student, of course, does not have a
right to participate in the games; but the coach’s decision on whether the
student gets to participate in games must be based on the same criteria
the coach uses for all other players (such as performance reflected during
practice sessions).