Otto Plank, a blond freshman with significant cognitive delays, swam to the end of the pool, where teammates were waiting to cheer him on during his turn for the return length. After he finished his leg of the relay race, the team’s three fastest seniors followed, one by one, and pulled into first place — Otto’s first varsity win.

He had already participated on a town recreation swim team and in the Special Olympics, and he began swimming on the high school team last fall. At the team’s last home meet of the season two weeks ago, coach Claude Valle decided to let Otto start the 200-yard freestyle relay event.

“He doesn’t really grasp what it all means,” said his mother, Janie Plank. “For him, it means he got to swim with some superstars.”

But for those studying new guidelines from the federal Department of Education that would have public elementary and secondary schools to accommodate students with disabilities who want to play sports, Otto’s place on the swim team shows how it can work.

Valle encouraged Otto, whose condition requires a full-time tutor in school, to join the team. Since Otto could not last through long practices — some swimmers spend 2½ hours in the water, five or six days a week — he would swim for shorter periods. An aide helped him get changed, and explained what he should do during practice.

“I think all kids, no matter what their situation, should have an opportunity to experience all aspects of school life,” Valle said. “It’s part of growing up. It’s part of socialization.”

The Department of Education’s new guidelines say schools must make “reasonable accommodations” — those that do not fundamentally change the sport or give students an unfair advantage — to allow disabled athletes to compete in sports. And for students who can only compete with more significant accommodations, schools must create a separate athletic opportunity, the department said.

“I think this directive could certainly bring sweeping changes in locker rooms for years to come, and, at a minimum, bring these issues to the forefront of the nation’s consciousness and make school districts discuss access in ways that they probably weren’t otherwise,” said Warren Zola, assistant dean of Boston College’s Carroll School of Management and a professor of sports law.

The guidelines do not set deadlines for schools to comply, Zola noted. Exactly what kinds of accommodations schools must make will likely be determined as courts hear cases about the law, Zola said. “I also understand that there will be backlash, and this will be difficult, and it’s never easy for someone to force an issue to have an opportunity,” he said.

Some schools have already created sports teams for disabled athletes. Algonquin Regional High School and seven other school districts created a new track league last year with teams that include students with intellectual disabilities. The team, which also has students from Westborough High, costs about $5,000 a year — partly covered by a grant — for coaching and transportation and other expenses, said Francis Whitten III, Algonquin’s athletic director. Parents do not pay a fee.

However, additional programs could increase costs at a time when schools are already asking families to pay sports participation fees for their children, said Barry Haley, athletic director at Concord-Carlisle High School.

“It is a challenge in a time when budgets are certainly not increasing, and the demands and costs of running a program are,” he said.

Some analysts have compared the new guidelines to Title IX, the 1972 federal civil rights law that banned gender discrimination in education and supported a sharp increase in women’s sports.

“I’m truly, truly excited,” said Anjali Forber-Pratt, an elite wheelchair racer and Paralympics champion who grew up in Natick. “I think that this is landmark in terms of civil rights for persons with disabilities. It’s a powerful statement to have the backing of the government.”

Forber-Pratt, who graduated from Natick High School in 2002, said there were no opportunities for her, in a wheelchair, to play sports in Natick public schools. Instead, she went to a sports clinic for disabled students at the Massachusetts Hospital School.