Award is the Highest Honor Granted to Unified Champion Schools Participants

When Special Olympics and partner ESPN announced this year’s crop of Unified Champion Schools National Banner honorees, THREE Kentucky schools were included among those recognized with the top honor in the Unified Champion Schools program. Two schools were honored for the first time while the third renewed its National Banner Status.

The new honorees were Louisville’s Eastern High School and Ryle High School from Union, Kentucky in Boone County. Both schools have been pioneers in building inclusive school communities.

Eastern has been part of the Unified Champion Schools Program for more than 10 years and even before UCS became an official designation, the Eagles competed in the Jefferson County Public Schools United Basketball League. Now they also participate in Unified bowling and track and field through the Kentucky High School Athletic Association. Recent efforts at Eastern include adding to their Youth Leadership Programs, including starting their first Youth Leadership Committee.

Ryle has also been a UCS school for more than a decade, but like Eastern, their inclusive school community efforts date to well before that. Their peer mentoring program has been making a difference in the lives of students at Ryle for many years. They also participate in the KHSAA’s Unified track and field and bowling events.

Both schools will hold official banner presentation ceremonies soon.

Bullitt East High School renewed National Banner status that it first earned in 2019 when the school was additionally recognized as an ESPN Top 5 School nationally. The Chargers become the second Kentucky National Banner School to renew their designation, joining East Carter High School.

In all, five Kentucky schools have achieved National Banner status to date East Carter and Calloway County High Schools in 2018, Bullitt East in 2019 and now Eastern and Ryle.

A school earns National Banner recognition by demonstrating commitment to inclusion by meeting 10 standards of excellence receives national banner recognition. A Special Olympics Unified Champion School has an inclusive school climate and exudes a sense of collaboration, engagement and respect for all members of the student body and staff. A Unified Champion School receiving national banner recognition is one that has demonstrated commitment to inclusion by meeting 10 national standards of excellence. These standards were developed by a national panel of leaders from Special Olympics and the education community.

National Banner recognition is the highest award a Unified Champion School can receive. It is the UCS equivalent of National Blue Ribbon School status.

For more information about the Unified Champion Schools program or about how your school can get involved, contact Karen Michalak-Parsley at [email protected] or 502-326-5002.