Pupils with exceptional needs: adaptive sports hubs pilot program.

Existing law provides that the Legislature finds and declares that all individuals with exceptional needs have a right to participate in free appropriate public education and special educational instruction and services for these persons are needed in order to ensure the right to an appropriate educational opportunity to meet their unique needs. This bill would establish the Adaptive Sports Hubs Pilot Program in the Counties of Imperial and Riverside for adaptive sports hubs at centralized public schools for pupils in kindergarten and grades 1 to 8, inclusive, in order to increase access to extracurricular sports programs for pupils with exceptional needs, and would appropriate $600,000 for the 2022–23 fiscal year for these purposes, as provided. The bill would require pilot programs to operate consistent with an applicable federal "Dear Colleague" letter and to include specific strategies to overcome barriers to the participation of pupils with exceptional needs in extracurricular athletics and to incorporate a philosophy of personal empowerment for those pupils. The bill would authorize pilot programs to, at a minimum, provide specified activities, and would authorize pilot programs to contract with third-party entities that are adaptive sports organizations or that offer adaptive sports to provide those activities. The bill would require the State Department of Education to conduct an evaluation of the Adaptive Sports Hubs Pilot Program, on or before January 1, 2029, as provided. The bill would repeal these provisions on January 1, 2030. This bill would make legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute for the Counties of Imperial and Riverside.