George Washington Carver Elementary School

Long Beach Unified School District is one of the largest in the country. We incompass 129 square miles, have 13,000 employees and serve 88,000 students in 93 school sites. Our school, George Washington Carver, is the only elementary school in the district and the city of Long Beach that has an Orthopedically Impaired Program (O.I.). There are orthopedically impaired students at other schools, but our children are orthopedically impaired as their primary disability and most are academically on track. Carver Elementary offers this program to children throughout the city beginning at the age of three.This program has a very important social impact on all of the students at Carver, teaching them at an early age understanding, compassion, and acceptance. The children in our O.I. program suffer from disorders such as cerebral palsy, spina bifida, arthrogryposis, and osteogenesis imperfecta. Unlike other schools, our O.I. children are integrated through out the grades. Unfortunately, during recess they can not play with their classmates and friends because Carver is not equipped with any playground structures that are accessible to wheelchairs or walkers. These children are being denied access not only to their social circle but also to the benefits of play which include physical development, cognitive growth, social interaction, and just plain fun which are vital parts of learning. Our goal is to have playground equipment that all the children can play on together, a universally accessible playground, that would continue to integrate the children and not separate them. This universally accessible playground would be the first in Long Beach Unified School District.
By being the first integrated playground in the Long Beach Unified School District we will serve as an example to other schools and to the community. Even more importantly, a gift to this program would not just help Carver Elementary students, but every orthopedically impaired child in Long Beach by offering them a place where they can both learn and play as not a child with a disability but as just a child.