Unified Physical Education class at Montgomery County Public Schools will teach lifetime activities and physical fitness

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Virginia – Montgomery County Public Schools will start a class that will help all students feel like they belong.

Physical fitness and activities for life will be taught in Unified Physical Education.

“Students in general education and special education work together in an inclusive PE class taught by a certified PE teacher,” said Anthony Walker, who is the Director of Special Education for MCPS.

The class will begin next school year as an option for all high school students in the county.

“It gives the students with disabilities a chance to work with their peers who don’t have disabilities,” Walker said.

Amy Stilwell has been trying for years to get Unified PE started. Her son David is in the 9th grade at Blacksburg High School. He has Down syndrome. She knows that everyone in this class has something to learn.

“David will benefit from the class, but the other students will also benefit from his joy and his ability to really enjoy every moment of the day,” she said.

Stilwell says that MCPS’s efforts to include everyone have helped her son grow, and that this new class will help him learn even more.

She said, “He has benefited a lot from growing up in an inclusive school community. Even in preschool at Kipps Elementary, he was always included, and now it’s kind of his turn to let these other kids join him in a class.”

Walker said, “It will have a big impact on the community, and it will show what our students with disabilities can do and what our school division can do when it comes to working with students with and without disabilities.”