Buffalo High School Hosts First Ever Unified Symposium

On April 10, 2026, Buffalo High School hosted its first-ever Unified Symposium, which invited nearly forty representatives from schools across the state to learn about the systems Buffalo High School has in place to embed and grow its exceptional Unified curriculum into daily life. The goal would then be for educators and administrators who attended the Unified Symposium to bring this knowledge back to their schools and implement it into their own systems. Through nearly a decade of dedication and growth in the Unified programs at Buffalo High School, this meeting was able to showcase the daily routines of Unified programming at BHS.

Unified at Buffalo High School started with a partnership with Special Olympics. Unified sports have strived to provide inclusivity to all kinds of students. This eventually grew into Unified week and even led to having Unified PE classes put into students’ schedules. Today the Unified program has grown to include Unified Music, Unified Home Living, Unified Stage Acting, and more.

“It’s a very nice school system to have,” Principal Mark Mischke said. “It [Unified programming] is ingrained, and it’s super cool.”

Mischke emphasized that these additions were financially accessible and easy to add to the school schedules with the available resources, due to the support from staff members involved in Unified programming.

“When I think about the Unified Symposium and the offer to other schools, it’s moved from ‘hey, a nice novelty to have that’s good for kids,’ to ‘hey, you can do this in your schools, regardless of what additional financial support you have,’” Mischke said. “You can do this in your existing structure. We have not had any more teachers added to do what we’re doing; we’ve simply been intentional about combining job assignments within certain staff so that this can happen.”

Months of careful planning and collaboration from staff and students across multiple programs contributed heavily to the ability for BHS to successfully host this event, which is one of the first of its kind in both the state of Minnesota and the nation. 

“The Unified Symposium on Friday was really a culmination of a lot of work from a lot of different people,” Mishcke said. “The ability to share with others is super exciting, because then, if other schools are impacted, think about the kids’ benefit.”

38 representatives from across the state came to the symposium to learn about how their Unified programs can grow. This included large districts like Anoka-Hennepin, Mankato, and other surrounding schools. 

The morning began with introductions in Bison Room filled with discussion about the importance of creating accessible learning for every student, and energy filled the room as highlights for the day were introduced. 

As the day continued, representatives explored BHS’s Unified programs by observing classes such as P.E. and music. They were shown how content and learning specialists can collaborate to create accessible curricula for every student. There was also time set aside to share how curriculum is built for Unified programs at BHS, with mapping beginning during the summer that is then broken down into weekly agendas, with learning targets, vocabulary, lesson details, etc. 

At the end of the day, students and staff involved with the BHS Unified program took part in a panel to share their experiences and answer questions from visiting representatives. Large concepts learned were how General Education tools can be made accessible for Special Education students, and how learning environments can be created to help students be successful independently.

Following Friday’s Unified Symposium, Unified week will begin on Monday, April 13. Each day of the week includes a dress-up day to show support for Special Education students, as well as different events around the school to bring inclusivity between students. Monday will start off the week with a Unified basketball tournament in the main gym; all classes will enter the gym at the end of the day to watch the final match that will feature two Buffalo teams going head-to-head.