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504 and Special Education in Higher Education
"Ask the Advocate" appears in SpecEd.com newsletter. It is reprinted here with their permission. To subscribe to their newsletter, please visit their site at:
My child has a 504 Plan and is ready to graduate from her current high
school. When my child attends college, how is her disability dealt with and how
does a state school differ from a private one in terms of accommodating her
disability? What rights does she have in terms of requesting and receiving
modifications?
This is actually a pretty easy situation. If she has been found eligible for
services under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 {*pdf} (federal
law), then that's her foot in the door for services in college. You will want to
contact your state's Department of Vocational Rehabilitation, which may be
responsible for financing certain portions of her educationally necessary
expenses. This can include anything from clothes for school to text books to
assistive technology (tape recorder for the classroom, etc.).
Where Special Education's function is to assist disabled students acquire a
fundamental education, Vocational Rehab is responsible for assisting disabled
adults - which your daughter has recently (or is about to) become upon turning
18 - to become
functional, employable citizens. What I'm reading between the lines in your
question is that your daughter may not have a transition plan as part of her IEP.
If she's 504, she's special ed. And if she's special ed, she has an IEP.
Pursuant to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA {*pdf}), which
was revised in 1997, all special education students' IEPs must include a
transition plan beginning when they turn 14. A transition plan is exactly that -
a plan for transitioning the student into a different situation (college, trade
school, work, etc.) upon completing high school. Special education isn't just
supposed to leave
you hanging once your child finishes the 12th grade.
Usually, transition plans include referrals to Vocational Rehabilitation so that
this state agency can pick up where public school leaves off. Vocational Rehab
develops a plan much like an IEP that includes current levels of functioning,
goals and objectives,
and a description of the services and supports the individual needs to become
employable. If this is something new to you, go over your daughter's most recent
IEP. If there is nothing in it about a transition plan, print this newsletter
and go straight to your
daughter's school. You will most likely need to call an IEP meeting in order to
have a transition plan created. It helps a great deal to have one, because the
school will (ideally) forward your child's records to Vocational Rehab and there
is continuity. (Even
if there is a transition plan in place, you may need to spur on the forwarding
of records. Sometimes, schools get backlogged or just don't get around to
forwarding records until months have passed.)
The next thing you need to do is contact all of the colleges you and your
daughter are considering and ask to speak to someone in their disabled students'
program. If they don't know what you are talking about, DON'T SEND HER THERE!
Most colleges
have a department that specifically addresses the needs of students with a
variety of disabilities, including learning disabilities, ADD, etc. State
schools are actually more likely to be on the ball, in my experience, though
that doesn't mean that there aren't
some fine private schools out there that have excellent programs. The thing is,
each college calls the department something different. One campus may call it
"Special Education," while another may opt for a more politically
correct name, such as
"Educational Assistance Center." Ask for an informational packet from
each, and specifically request a copy of each school's disabled student's rights
handout. You may find everything on each college's web site, as well. When you
schedule your visits to
the campuses you are seriously considering, schedule an appointment with a
counselor in the disabled students' program.
One thing to look out for are very small private colleges with separate programs
that actively recruit disabled students, boast a large enrollment of disabled
students, and require fees above the normal tuition. While this may seem
appealing on the surface,
you can easily end up with a higher ratio of disabled students in the classroom
than non-disabled, and eliminate the experience of full inclusion in a regular
classroom, which is the ideal. These small, geographically isolated campuses can
also sometimes
be magnets for students with severe emotional problems (also an eligible
disability) who can't handle the pressures of a large university or whose
families don't feel comfortable putting them somewhere where they have perceived
easier access to drugs
and alcohol. Drugs and alcohol are obtainable from absolutely any college, no
matter how small and isolated it is. If anything, populating a higher percentage
of the student body with people who have these kinds of problems (and within
such a tight environment) is often far worse than integrating them into the rest
of mainstream society. They feed off of each other's symptoms.
Also, some of these small, isolated programs' reported results are dubious as
they have been known to "fudge" on behalf of disabled students to keep
their numbers high and make their programs more marketable to parents of
disabled students. In this
day and age of the Americans with Disabilities Education Act (ADA), to charge an
extra fee to a student because he or she is disabled is typically regarded as
discrimination. You are far more likely to find a program that regards your
child as a person first, and as disabled secondly when there are no additional
fees involved. The whole idea is to assist your daughter to function as an
adult. All of us have things we have to overcome in order to be the most we are
capable of being. One of the things she has to overcome is her disability, but
her disability doesn't define who she is, and she doesn't need to define herself
by it. Look for a program that encourages the individual within her and presents
itself as wanting to help her find her path in life, whatever that may be. You
don't want a program that is going to do everything for her; you want one that
will teach her how to do it for herself.
In terms of the laws that protect your child's rights, you will find the
relevant state laws referenced in the students' rights handouts you get from
each campus. The federal laws that protect her are the ADA and, again, Section
504. Section 504 is a piece of federal legislation that states that any federal
agency or other entity that receives any kind of federal money (think: federal
financial aid, a jillion grants, and research money out the wazoo) is prohibited
from discriminating based on sex, color, creed, ya-da, ya-da, ya-da, and
HANDICAPPING CONDITION. What makes your child 504 eligible now is that, per the
legal definition, she has some type of disability that prevents her from
engaging in the major life function of learning without assistance in the form
of special education. The disability isn't going to just up and disappear when
she goes to college, and regardless of
whether she goes to a private or public school, the campus is receiving federal
money in one form or another. She's still covered by 504. If they fail to
provide her with appropriate supports, they are discriminating against her as
described by Section 504. Someone at each campus should be the designated 504
coordinator, though there is no guarantee that if you ask whom that might be
they will know what the heck you are talking about. Vocational Rehab will have a
better handle on the 504 issues.
Good luck as you and your child take this enormous step forward! SpEdRights.com
appreciates the chance to answer your questions in our "Ask the
Advocate" newsletter.