Special-needs kids can climb ‘hill’ to full inclusion

It is a hod, humid August evening in Pittsburgh. As Annie starts up a long hill on the cross-country course, she glances up with a daunted look on her face and begins to walk. At that moment, an eighth-grade girl at Ave Maria Academy passes her and encourages her: “Come on, Annie, you can do it!” Smiling, Annie begins running again as her teammates — boys and girls ranging from third grade to eighth grade — offer words of support.

Annie runs at a disadvantage — she has low muscle tone and a history of respiratory issues, common challenges for children with Down syndrome – but she keeps going, buoyed by a culture of unfailing support.

Annie attends Ave Maria Academy as part of her dual enrollment in the Diocese of Pittsburgh’s St. Anthony Program. After the IDEA act was signed into law in 1975, guaranteeing children with disabilities a “free and appropriate public education,” almost all children with special needs were enrolled in public schools. Nevertheless, the St. Anthony Program dared to reimagine the initiative, launching a pilot effort to mainstream children with special needs into Catholic schools. Funded by generous Pittsburgh parishioners, it continues this mission at multiple elementary and secondary school sites throughout the diocese and even at Duquesne University.

As a family with children who attended one of those sites, we reaped benefits from the St. Anthony Program long before Annie was born. We found that the inclusion of children with special needs creates an atmosphere where typical children internalize the message that children with disabilities are valued and loved members of the school community. Typical students learn patience, kindness, compassion – and, from their classmates with special needs, they receive unconditional acceptance and love.

Catholic schools operate on a shoestring, struggling to stay open each year. Does the Church have the bandwidth to assume the education of children with special needs? So far, the generosity of donors has made it possible in some dioceses, but for many others it seems financially impossible.

However, in the wake of the COVID pandemic, as parents witnessed the determination of Catholic schools to remain open and realized that public schools have embraced progressive ideologies in curricula and school culture, there is fresh momentum for vouchers and school-choice initiatives. It is imperative that school-choice initiatives include unlocking public funds for students with disabilities and that Catholic schools seize this opportunity to develop programs for children with disabilities.

For the Catholic schools, inclusion of children with disabilities inspires a culture of kindness that makes the message of the Gospel come alive and strengthens Catholic identity. Initiatives like the St. Anthony Program are important not only so students learn to befriend the vulnerable among them today, but also so that as adults they will reject what Pope Francis calls the “throwaway culture” of abortion for babies diagnosed prenatally with disabilities.

The course is brutal – a long, winding trail uphill with little shade and with scant opportunity to see other runners if you fell behind. Nevertheless, Annie perseveres, the last person on the course as the setting sun casts long shadows. As she nears the final stretch, her older brother, always there to encourage her, runs out to meet her and jogs along her side. Then from all directions, spontaneously, runners from all of the Catholic schools’ teams converge to run the final stretch with Annie. As Annie crosses the finish line with her friends, she throws her hands in the air to celebrate her race. Annie is always a winner, no matter where she finishes in the race, and on this night all the other runners are winners too.

THERESA FARNAN, PH.D., is a co-founder of the Person and Identity Project (personandidentity.com), and has taught philosophy at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary, and St Paul’s Seminary in Pittsburgh PA. She and her husband, Mike, are parents of 10 children, including her exceptional daughter, Annie.