Playground equipment offers play for all children

After a couple of years of planning, the school district was finally able to install adaptive playground equipment at all of the elementary school playgrounds at the end of the summer.

Special education director Jody Taylor said it has been a long road.

“Between the long funding approval process at the state level, as well as shipping and installation delays, we were finally able to get all the adaptive equipment installed,” she said.

Operations manager Wayne Larsen said the company who installed the equipment put them in at the end of the summer and they were able to start being used by October. They installed two at Legacy, two at Venture and one at Frontier.

The equipment features a rocker at one end that is wheelchair or walker accessible. They have two bars on the back that other children can push it to get it moving.

“Tea Area added the equipment to ensure we were providing equal access to all our young Titans. It promotes inclusive play opportunities too,” Taylor said. “All students, including those with mobility difficulties, now have an opportunity to play on the equipment.”

The panel games allow students to have a wide variety of activities to play independently and with their peers. 

“In fact, the kids love the new equipment so much that the teachers have had to set a timer so kids can rotate, and everyone can have a turn,” Taylor said.