Special Olympics Massachusetts has announced that Lawrence Public Schools’ Rollins Early Childhood Center, a preK-K school with Special Olympics Unified Champion School programming, is receiving National Banner recognition for its efforts to provide inclusive sports and activities for students with and without intellectual disabilities!
The Rollins is the first Massachusetts preschool ever to be named a National Banner School, and one of only 19 schools in the state and 202 nationally to receive the honor for the 2023-24 school year.
The Rollins earned this distinguished status by meeting 10 national standards of excellence in the areas of inclusion, advocacy, and respect, developed by a national panel of leaders from Special Olympics and the education community. The primary activities within these standards include Special Olympics Unified Sports, where students with and without disabilities train and compete as teammates. In LPS hundreds of student-athletes from across the district participate every year, culminating each spring with the LPS Unified Games Day at Veterans Memorial Stadium and South Lawrence East.
