Seated in her power chair, 17-year-old Hailee Agnew looked as if she would never stop smiling.

After all, Hailee, who lives in the Trinity Area School District, was motoring around, doing her favorite physical education class activity -- square dancing -- at The Day School of The Children's Institute of Pittsburgh in Squirrel Hill.

Students at the school are challenged by severe and complex disabilities, such as cerebral palsy, neurological impairment and autism.

In physical education classes there, the emphasis is on opportunities, not limitations.

Square dancing, basketball, hockey, bicycling, football, track and swimming -- all are within reach of the students when the activities are adapted to each student's needs and abilities.

Sometimes, the phys ed classes are also a setting for physical therapy.

"It really helps the overall condition of the body if you're moving, just like regular physical education," said Judy Conroy, who has been teaching phys ed at the institute for 28 years.

She said students learn skills that can help them socialize outside of school and join in family activities.

Carol Pollard, who teaches secondary academic subjects, also sees results beyond the school gym.

"Anytime they can move, it's a good thing," she said. "They're learning group games, rules, cooperative behaviors. These things carry over into the classroom and life."

Ms. Conroy and fellow teacher Lynn Norlander teach nearly all of the about 200 students at the day school. Each student attends class in the gym or the pool at least once a week.

At regular and special schools, some phys ed teachers provide adapted physical education for children who need it, making small or big changes to the way activities are done.

At schools such as Children's Institute, where all of the children have disabilities, teachers must exercise their creativity for each student in every class.

In one of Ms. Conroy's phys ed classes recently, students danced to a lively rendition of square dance music recorded without the calls. Ms. Conroy then adapted a traditional Virginia reel dance and gave her own calls.

With either a staff member or volunteer next to nearly every student, students -- some in power chairs, some using various kinds of walkers or walking on their own -- lined up in two lines facing each other.

They followed commands to spin around and face the door. They promenaded through an archway made of foam noodles.

Then, back in two lines facing each other again, they walked or rode into the middle to clap hands with their partners and then back to their places again.

In this particular class, square dancing was the warm-up for the main activity: the Hoops for Hearts fundraiser, a tradition at the Children's Institute for many years. Two classes were together for a double period in the gym, which had walls lined with photos from past years.

The school usually raises about $1,500 each year for Hoops for Hearts, which goes to the American Heart Association and the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.

For one group of students, two hula hoops were set up, low to the ground. For the other group, two children's indoor plastic basketball hoops on stands -- of two different heights -- were on either side of the gym.

Both groups used what Ms. Conroy calls a "bumpy ball," which has bumps that add a tactile experience and give better ball control.

On the hula hoop side, 20-year-old Kenny Karpa of West Mifflin Area School District moved his power chair toward the hoop, raised his arm and threw a ball into the hoop.

"It's fun," he said later. "Just hanging around with all the guys and playing basketball."

On the indoor basketball hoop side, the players lined up in two rows facing each other. Ms. Conroy assigned them numbers, and then called for, say, No. 3, on each team -- which they dubbed the Shamocks and Team Awesome -- to come out.

The players moved in their own way, with a helper, picking up a ball or being given a ball from the middle, going to a hoop and then putting the ball in. The one who made it back first scored a point for his or her team.

Asked if phys ed class is fun, 19-year-old Josh Kuznetsov, who lives in the Woodland Hills School District, using a speech generating device, answered, "Yes." As to his favorite activity, basketball got a "no" and dancing a "yes."

Patrick Morrison, 17, who lives in the Hampton School District, had this to say about phys ed class:

"It's cool."

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