Inclusive Playground Opens Thanks to Minneapolis Students

The new playground at Ella Baker magnet school is part of a broader trend of Minneapolis schools adding accessible playgrounds that all students can enjoy.

Sometimes it takes time to get things done just right, and that certainly has been the case with the new playground at Ella Baker Global Studies and Humanities Magnet School in Minneapolis.

Faced with the prospect of the school district installing a new play area with equipment inaccessible to some classmates, Ella Baker fourth-graders mounted a successful petition drive two years ago to block the design and then set out to create a worthy replacement.

The magnet school serves students in preschool to eighth grade and, as part of its programming, houses a citywide special education program that includes students with physical and developmental disabilities.

The last of the major playground pieces came together in late October, and on Tuesday, several student leaders — now sixth-graders — climbed onto one of the inclusive play area’s most coveted features: a saucer-like “Oodle Swing” that allows kids to sway on it together.

Together being what this has been all about.

“We’ve had kids who are deaf, and kids who have vision impairments and really poor balance, who’ve been able to go on there with their friends,” said Jessica Knutson, a physical therapist with Minneapolis Public Schools. “That’s never been able to happen before.”