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Pasco School District highlighted as a national demonstration site for inclusive playground design
Summary
Special education staff said Pasco’s inclusive-playground work earned national demonstration-site recognition; staff described how playgrounds plus unified classrooms support belonging, citing student outcomes and grant funding for designs at multiple elementary schools.
Pasco School District presented a districtwide approach to inclusive playground design and unified classrooms that special-education staff said has been recognized at the national level.
Tracy Wilson, presenting the Special Education Department’s third update in a four-part series, told the board that Three Rivers Elementary and Columbia River Elementary meet the criteria for a national demonstration site for inclusive playground design, and that a design for Virgin Robinson Elementary is under development.
Wilson said inclusive playgrounds go beyond accessibility checklists to intentionally remove physical and social barriers. Playgrounds that incorporate the seven demonstrated principles — distributed play opportunities, sensory-rich elements, spaces for regulation, and settings that promote interaction among students with and without disabilities — support social skills, reduce stigma, and increase time on learning, she said. Wilson illustrated those claims with an anonymized student example and said the Virgin Robinson project was funded in part through an accessible education cooperative grant and a collaborative design process involving families and school leadership.
Board members thanked staff for linking the playground work to classroom practices through a unified-classroom model that keeps students in neighborhood schools while providing specialized supports. Wilson said the district’s unified-classroom strategy and playground investments aim to strengthen family engagement and long-term student outcomes, especially in schools serving higher proportions of low-income students.
Wilson said a final installment of the special education update will describe a multi-year apprenticeship partnership with the Washington Education Association to grow the special-education teacher pipeline.
Next steps: Wilson said the district will continue to seek partnerships and grant funding to scale inclusive sites, complete the Virgin Robinson design, and share implementation timelines for additional schools.
