<p>There appears to be a lot of misinformation or misunderstanding amongst parents and boarding school staff and administrators regarding legal requirements, or lack thereof, for private boarding schools to provide certain accommodations or modifications for students who may have a documented disability and/or ADHD. Many of them believe that since the school is "private" and especially if it does not receive any federal funding, then the school may deny, or pick and choose voluntarily which (if any) types of accommodations or modifications it will provide to the student. HOWEVER, that is wrong and it is ILLEGAL for them to not provide all and any accommodations or modifications, at SCHOOL expense, unless they can demonstrate that it would be a HUGE (hard to prove) burden for the school to have to do so or that the accommodation or modification would substantially alter the SUBSTANCE of the curriculum etc. They do not have to provide any remediation services but they DO have to provide all accommodations, modifications to testing format etc. and modifications to school policies and practices etc. that are necessary to give the student "equal access" to everything other students do such as learning and to demonstrating mastery, in a "level the playing field" type of way. ALL USA private schools, including all boarding schools, in EVERY state are subject to the federal americans with disabilities act (ADA) regardless of whether they receive any federal funds, and must provide reasonable accommodations at the school's expense, including auxiliary aids and services so that the student has equal access and a level playing field, individualized to the needs of the student pursuant to the student's documented disabilities. This includes that (for example) they even have to provide (at school expense) things such as a sign language interpreter for a kid who has a hearing disability. And they canNOT deny or rescind admission due to the existence of the disability or due to the need for the particular accommodations. If they violate this and the parent files a complaint with the federal Office of Civil Rights or the comparable state civil rights agency that enforces the ADA law, the school will get into big trouble. Most of the schools appear to not understand the applicability of the ADA to them as private schools and most parents similarly are not aware of this. But the only way we can change this is to get the word out to the schools and to the parents. I can provide links to cases, government agency contacts, etc., if anyone needs that. Remember, this is specifically due to the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), under which all private schools are considered places of "public" accommodation (whether or not they receive any federal funding) even though they are "private" schools. Please help get the word out to the schools and the parents and students !</p>
<p>My hope is that some brave souls who have kids who have been denied certain accommodations (or who have been told by their school that only certain accommodations are ever available to anyone, such that the parent/student didn’t even bother asking for accommodations that are not on the school’s “accommodations available at our school” list) , will share this information (or get someone else to share it) with their private day and/or private boarding schools. The administrators of the private schools usually belong to private school organizations, many of which have “trade” meetings over the summer, and I bet that the administrators of different schools socialize at least a little at those meetings. If the information gets out and some of those school administrators start talking about it, it will probably get around to most or all of the private schools that they better look into this because it’s a legal risk for them to be violating the law, especially if parents start to get more knowledgeable and file complaints with the ADA-enforcing governmental agencies. (And if they research it they will find that a few private schools have already been prosecuted and gotten into big trouble, although of course those private schools try to keep that quiet.) My hope is that if word spreads, at least most of them will correct their ways, for everyone’s benefit.</p>
<p>HERE IS A COPY AND PASTE OF PART OF A REPLY SENT TO ME BY AN ADA-RELATED AGENCY: </p>
<p>" A private nonreligious school, at any level of schooling (preschool, elementary, high school,
or higher; as well as a specialty trade school, etc.) who does NOT receive even 1 penny of federal money is
nonetheless covered under Title III of the ADA as a place of public
accommodation and as such must provide reasonable modifications to policies,
practices and procedures.</p>
<p>DOJ Highlights (a straight forward way of explaining obligations)
<a href=“Redirecting…”>www.ada.gov/t3hilght.htm</a></p>
<p>Title III Regulations
<a href=“Redirecting…”>www.ada.gov/regs2010/titleIII_2010/titleIII_2010_regulations.htm</a></p>
<p>Sample Cases" (I can provide other cases as you wish):</p>
<p><a href=“Redirecting…”>www.ada.gov/carsonlg.htm</a></p>
<p><a href=“Redirecting…”>www.ada.gov/nobel_learning.htm</a></p>
<h2>Here’s a few more links (some more helpful than others; some with more new/different info and others just repeating/reinforcing the same info) that may help everyone see some of the points I’m hoping that private schools (and parents) can get informed about:</h2>
<p><a href=“http://www.pacer.org/publications/adaqa/school.asp”>www.pacer.org/publications/adaqa/school.asp</a></p>
<p><a href=“National Association of the Deaf - NAD”>www.nad.org/issues/education/other-opportunities/ada-obligations</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.texasprojectfirst.org/ADA.html”>www.texasprojectfirst.org/ADA.html</a></p>
<p>assets.wne.edu/162/8<em>arti</em>How_Priv.pdf</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content3/ada.idea.html”>www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content3/ada.idea.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nond.org/NOND-FAQs/files/51846a0b0d2f212fbe8e131dbdf01993-6.html”>www.nond.org/NOND-FAQs/files/51846a0b0d2f212fbe8e131dbdf01993-6.html</a></p>
<p>Here’s a link to one more case settlement. All of these cases/issues would be equally applicable to any type of documented disability and disability accommodation needs, including learning disabilities and ADHD within the context of academic-related accommodations in any type of school at all, including any U.S.A. private day or boarding school. Here’s the additional case link, which I think also shows that for the school to establish that the accommodation is too burdensome is pretty tough (and the school has the burden of proof) insofar as these cases show that pretty substantial (inconvenient and expensive) accommodations were NOT deemed as burdensome enough. It’s difficult for me to imagine an academic-related accommodation that a private school could prove is too burdensome, under these difficult ADA standards.</p>
<p><a href=“#07-491 : 07-10-07 Federal Agreement with Utah College of Massage Therapy will Ensure Effective Communication for Students with Disabilities”>www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2007/July/07_crt_491.html</a></p>