{"id":4125,"date":"2010-10-25T11:08:20","date_gmt":"2010-10-25T15:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=4125"},"modified":"2010-10-25T11:08:20","modified_gmt":"2010-10-25T15:08:20","slug":"mn-supreme-court-refuses-to-limit-extracurricular-nonacademic-activities-to-those-that-educate-the-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/mn-supreme-court-refuses-to-limit-extracurricular-nonacademic-activities-to-those-that-educate-the-child\/","title":{"rendered":"MN Supreme Court Refuses to Limit Extracurricular &#038; Nonacademic Activities to those that &#8220;Educate the Child&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"MN%20Supreme%20Court%20Refuses%20to%20Limit%20Extracurricular%20%26%20Nonacademic%20Activities%20to%20those%20that%20%22Educate%20the%20Child%22\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><blockquote><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" style=\"margin: 3px; border: 1px solid black;float:right\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/images\/volleyball.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"152\" \/>Can my child&#8217;s IEP include supplementary aids and services for extracurricular activities and after-school programs?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>The answer is yes.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We receive many questions from parents about extracurricular activities, after school clubs, and sports.  The schools tell parents they are not required to provide assistance for these activities since they occur after school, take place off the school grounds, or do not involve academics.<\/p>\n<p>The Minnesota Supreme Court ruling in <a href=\"http:\/\/lawprofessors.typepad.com\/files\/mde_v_isd_12_minn_2010-1.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><em>Independent School Dist. v. Minn. Dep&#8217;t of Education<\/em><\/span><\/a> (Oct. 7, 2010)\u00a0        held that IDEA requires school districts to take steps to provide extracurricular and nonacademic activities to afford the student an equal opportunity to participate. The IEP team must determine which activities are appropriate and include them in the IEP. These activities are not limited to activities that &#8220;educate the child.&#8221; <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Minnesota parents of a 5th grader with autism requested that the IEP team consider supplementary aids and services to enable their daughter to participate in volleyball and after-school clubs.<\/p>\n<p>When the school district refused, the parents filed a complaint with the Minnesota DOE. DOE concluded that the school district violated IDEA.<\/p>\n<p>The Department ordered the school district to convene the IEP team to discuss any appropriate supplementary aids and services needed in the IEP to allow the student to participate in these activities.<\/p>\n<p>The school district appealed and <a href=\"http:\/\/caselaw.findlaw.com\/mn-court-of-appeals\/1141236.html\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">the appeals court held<\/span><\/a> that IDEA requires  an IEP team to consider whether an extracurricular and nonacademic activity is appropriate for the student. The school must provide the necessary aids and services for participation, but only if the activities are required for the education of the child.<\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court of Minnesota reviewed the case to determine whether &#8220;the IDEA regulations limit the extracurricular and nonacademic activities included in an IEP to only those \u201crequired for the education\u201d of disabled students. The court held that the IDEA regulations <strong>contain no such limit<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Since IDEA does not define &#8220;extracurricular and nonacademic activities&#8221; the Court turned to the federal regulations for specific language.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Section 300.107(b) provides a nonexhaustive list of examples of extracurricular and nonacademic activities. Section 300.107(b) expressly includes athletics, clubs, and activities offered by groups sponsored by the school district. But the section does not otherwise limit those extracurricular and nonacademic activities eligible for inclusion in the IEP.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Section 300.117 does not limit what qualifies as an extracurricular and nonacademic activity. Instead, the section further defines extracurricular and nonacademic activities to include meals and recess as well as the activities listed in section 300.107(b).&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court refused &#8220;to limit extracurricular and nonacademic activities to those required only to educate the disabled student&#8221; because it would be adding or reading words into the plain language of the federal IDEA regulations. The Court also held that the appeals court ruling violated the \u201cequal opportunity\u201d for participation in extracurricular and nonacademic activities required by the federal regulations.<\/p>\n<p>A copy of the case can be downloaded here <a href=\"http:\/\/lawprofessors.typepad.com\/files\/mde_v_isd_12_minn_2010-1.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">MDE_v_ISD_12_(Minn_2010) (1)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lawprofessors.typepad.com\/files\/mde_v_isd_12_minn_2010-1.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">http:\/\/lawprofessors.typepad.com\/files\/mde_v_isd_12_minn_2010-1.pdf<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Hat Tip: <a href=\"http:\/\/lawprofessors.typepad.com\/adjunctprofs\/\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Adjunct Law Prof Blog<\/span><\/a> &#8211; October 8<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can my child&#8217;s IEP include supplementary aids and services for extracurricular activities and after-school programs? The answer is yes. We receive many questions from parents about extracurricular activities, after school <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/mn-supreme-court-refuses-to-limit-extracurricular-nonacademic-activities-to-those-that-educate-the-child\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,11,1277],"tags":[687,686,1299,402],"class_list":["post-4125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ieps","category-special-ed-law","category-supplementary-aids-and-services","tag-caselaw","tag-extracurricular-and-nonacademic-activities","tag-ieps","tag-supplementary-aids-and-services"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4125"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4191,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4125\/revisions\/4191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}