Disability Support Plan looks like.....? (legal?)

Parents Forum Learning Differences and Challenges - LD, ADHD
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Ds had an IEP for ASD throughout gradeschool, but it was my understanding that he would need to obtain a 504 in order to have legal protections in college for the disability. The document that my son’s giant university uses is actually (just found this out today) NOT a 504 but, rather, their own Plan. Is it legal to offer a Plan rather than a 504? The Plan simply states that the student is aware that he can access five different, generic (“assistive technology!”, “advocacy”!) accommodations in bullet form, and the student then signs it. The school said it’s legally binding in that the student can access those generic accommodations. It does not state that the school will do anything or that the student will be provided anything. I’m confused. Is this a common practice on college campuses now?

When ds registered with the Disability Office at his giant public university, they required documentation. Ds submitted his hs IEP, documentation of ASD, AND the office received a very detailed email from his academic support counselor from the semester before, outlining how important it was to meet weekly, and what worked and didn’t work and what would probably work better, because ds has difficulty advocating for himself and has anxiety which makes it even harder to advocate for himself. This Office said it does not really use any of the documentation when making up the Plan. Instead, it relies on what the student says during the Intake; and then the students are REQUIRED (her word) to advocate for themselves regardless of diagnosis. I guess if all supporting documentation is ignored when writing up the Plan, the school can argue that they were not legally required to help the student advocate, even though it’s diagnostically critical. Therefore, the school is not in violation of the law…because they didn’t write it into the Plan. Can the school do that? Looking at it, I guess if they write up the Plan, they can determine what they will legally be liable for, regardless of diagnosis (which is, as she’d stated, their attitude).

Do other schools do this?

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Colleges do not use 504 plans and students are not offered the same protections they get in k12. Colleges are obligated to provide basic accommodations according to the ADA but they do not have to offer support plans. Colleges vary in the amount of support they give, with some colleges offering full programs (often fee based), and other only offering basics, like extended time on tests, alternative testing locations, notes taken by a paid student etc.

Once a student heads to college, they are expected to self advocate and often parents are not invited to assist their child. The student is legally protected by FERPA so parents are often not welcome to help. Anyone with a child who has an ASD understands why this can be trouble, but unfortunately, this is the state of things.

Often students with ASDs need more than basic accommodations which is why there are numerous programs popping up throughout the nation at a variety of colleges. Unlike K-12, these programs are not free. They are self funded.

So to answer your question, colleges are not legally required to offer the same types of programs and protections that your student received in school. College is a totally different animal. It is unfortunate but that if the way it is. It is always best to check with the disabilities office before the final college choice is made to see what the attitude is. I realize that this time has already passed but for anyone else reading in the future, it is important to note.

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Colleges do not have to write an educational plan the way K-12 schools do, and most of them don’t construct any specific plan. What you submitted will be used to qualify your son for a range of accommodations.

Is your son already in college? There are some universities that will provide more intensive support for a fee. RIT for example has a fantastic program they call Spectrum Support. If like a lot of ASD kids your son is shy and reluctant to self advocate, and you don’t think he’ll make it without someone reaching out to him on a regular basis without being asked, I would look in that direction. If he is already in college and you do not think the accommodations are enough for your son to succeed, you could look at academic support programs that are offered by ASD specialists such as AHEADD (www.aheadd.org).

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Thank you. It’s been an eye-opening (and disappointing) weekend as I’ve learned that ASD kids are at such a disadvantage at the college level. It’s nice that it’s so relatively easy to access all of the possible supports-you get registered, you get any and all supports. But you have to self-advocate. Even with ADHD, you can ask for help. When self-advocay is part of the disability, you’re screwed. “Aspies need not apply”, no matter how smart. "Oh wait, apply so we can accept you because we want your really high ACT scores to increase our ranking, but then you’re on your own. ". Truly, staff told me all sorts of things to make me feel better but then ignored everything I thought we’d agreed on. I hope others learn from my naïveté. The attitude is that ds is an adult so only his opinion matters and if he has ASD and can’t articulate what he needs, well, they’ll still ignore the parents and other professionals (including their own campus staff) because that’s what their rules state, not what is best for an Aspie.

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@Befuddled1to2 The problem is the difference between what is legally expected in the k-12 public system and the college system. As parents, we are used to the idea that the school is required to insure that our children are SUCCESSFUL. This is part of IDEA. Once a child becomes an adult, nobody is responsible for his success, they are only responsible for his ACCESS. As long as he has access (notes, extra time, a scribe, braille, a sign interpreter) that is considered enough. This is true in education and work. He is entitled to reasonable accommodations but nobody has to guarantee that he be successful. This is what we leave behind when our kids graduate from public school. It is unfortunate.

You can see this financially as well. Students in a public school system receive extra funding from the state for SpEd services. This is not the case in college. Unless the school has a TRIO program or some kind of grant, there is no extra funding for services, so unless you are willing to provide funding there is nothing available.

I am sorry that you were mislead by your son’s college. You may want to investigate alternative programs at colleges that specifically have programs for autism/AS. There are two colleges that are for ADS/ADHD/LDs as well as a number of programs that are fee based at a variety of colleges throughout the US.

Maybe you can hire someone from the college he is at now to act as a mentor for him. This is what they do in many of the fee based college programs. They bring in people to help out. Perhaps reaching out to the psychology department and see if they have a student who is willing to work with you and your son several hours a week.

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Parents really do need to understand what accommodations are and what they are not. I actually think it is a disservice to students to depict accommodations for cognitive and emotional disabilities in the same way as accommodations for physical disabilities. And I also believe confusion about it has lead to devastating decisions about colleges for many students.

I see parents of students with various types of LD, ADS, ADHD and mental health problems (esp anxiety) whose kids have A’s and great scores encourage them to go to hyper competitive “prestigious” schools, sometimes across the country because they can get in. On paper, their “accommodations” allow them to look like every other high achieving student. What is not revealed (legally) is that the child hasn’t achieved just like every other high achieving student. Rather, the parents orchestrated (and contributed to) an immense support system that helped the child with every aspect of school-structuring their days, structuring their schedules, guiding them through every home work assignment, overseeing every aspect of the child’s school related tasks. And, the school provided quiet spaces for the child to take tests and allowed time and a half or double time for tests. Socially the parents arranged for every activity the child was involved with. And the laudable result was a fine record. And now what? What should happen? The student should apply to small supportive schools that are close to home. What does happen? The student often opts for a hyper competitive school at a distance from his or her family. And this can be devastating. In fact, I bet this is responsible for a good bit of the rise in mental health problems among students in many competitive colleges.

Students and their parents should not view accommodations as erasing disabilities. The student’s day does not consist of 36 hours (time and a half) even if the student is eligible for time and a half on tests. And in most competitive schools the school staff isn’t going to arrange the student’s social world. And the professors are not going to help the student make a schedule to complete a paper. Instead, the professor will simply tell the class when the papers are due. The student who relied on having a parent help to break down large tasks into smaller tasks (outline, rough draft, etc) to earn the A’s won’t have that type of support. I

Accommodations don’t erase learning problems even if a student’s transcript is stellar. The transcript does not mean the same thing as it would without that high level of support. Just because a student can gain entry to a very competitive school does not mean that the student should attend one. Why would anyone encourage a highly anxious student with ADHD attend a highly competitive college? How could that work for the student? The abilities and mental health issues need to be factored in while making decisions about where to attend college.

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So true; unfortunately, with a very bright student with ASD issues, parents can underestimate the value of the support provided at home. The student may be intellectually capable of handling demanding courses but not combined with the adjustment of living at college.

The most valuable thing I learned on cc was to let go of the idea that my son would be successful in a competitive environment, and ignore the mail from Caltech and U Chicago in favor of a completely different type of experience. Even then, multiple professionals told me it likely wouldn’t work out for him to go away, although so far he is doing well.

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^Yes, I had to accept that about my son who has schizophrenia. He’s really brilliant, but whenever he gets in a class that challenges him at all, his stress goes up, which means his symptoms increase. He’s talking about switching from applied math to counseling! That makes no sense at all, considering his abilities, but I am biting my tongue (literally). He may not get a college degree, period, even though our local school has been VERY accommodating. :frowning:

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^My son’s issues were less debilitating in some ways than some of your children but he is severely dyslexic and talked with a speech delay. Reading and writing initially were not just hard but were physically painful and, in large doses, are still quite fatiguing. I urged him in that light to attend not an Ivy but an elite LAC where there were no distribution requirements and he could avoid 400 pages of reading per week in humanities courses. Although he loves literature (and co-authored a fantasy novel in HS), he took no literature or humanities courses in college. Some of his social science courses had a fair bit of reading, but he was and is fairly strategic about how he could balance his course load between math / math-y econ courses and other courses that would require writing and possibly reading. All in all, he was very successful in college (graduated summa with academic awards) in part because he picked a school that was both responsive and accommodating and whose rules allowed him to manage his reading/writing workload.

My advice to him was to play to his strengths and I taught him advocacy skills in middle school and HS. He has absorbed both lessons and is doing quite well post-college.

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The mission of the IDEA is successful preparation of students eligible for special education and related services, but what that actually means in obscure. Transition services occur late in high school. There are problems that are basic to the academic system well before college application and admissions.

Most students start expressing interest in attending college, even naming majors, in about sixth grade. It is at this point the parents of students in special education need to support their children’s college goals actively and vigilantly. While it is important to understand the supports offered through an IEP, it is at least as important to know the curriculum your child is taught. Special education services are provided to students who are behind classmates academically; 504 plans provide accommodations to students whose disabilities do not produce a negative impact on academics. Because the IDEA and a different part of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, academic success, often getting ready for college, is the focus.

Students typically attend higher education in their home state. Consequently, parents do need to know what the admissions requirements of colleges and universities in their area. With some digging, it is possible to access the profile of students admitted to the school for one or more years. You do not want your son or daughter to be at the low end of the admits. Use this information to ensure your student is academically prepared.

After high school graduation, students are expected to have the necessary personal and academic skills to succeed in college or the workplace. At this point, there is a clear shift in focus away from eligibility for special education, IEPs and related services. Instead, the legal focus becomes identification of individuals who meet the legal definition of disability, especially current functional limitations, and discussing with the individual with the disability what accommodations compensate for functional limitations for the disability. Accommodations are narrow and are specifically tied to actual manifestations of the disability.

In college, a student with a clear math disability does not receive assistance in reading even if reading is personally challenging (not disability-related). Students are expected to provide a clear, specific disability-related response to why extended time on tests is required. Test anxiety, freaking out, freezing up, forgetting what was studied, slow processing speed, etc. are not sufficient grounds for ET in college. If the student cites difficulties in time management, sluggish attention, whatever, s/he needs to prove it through documentation. Classes are often not waived, especially when tied to graduation or major requirement. For example, a student majoring in marketing found avoiding public speaking demands a non-started. All math classes are not waived for business majors.

Faculty are unlikely to reteach classes to individual students; instead, they, like academic tutors and grad assistants, answer specific questions students have about content. The course syllabus describes class expectations, requirements, and the schedule for topics and do dates.

High school students should not only be taking comparable classes by name, but by content to students not in special education. For example, a class in pre-algebra in middle school may teach basic equations. However, the content level is different. For example, students are asked to solve 8-x=3, but may not have memorized basic number facts sufficiently to calculate the answer without using fingers or an arithmetic chart, Students in this class will earn passing grades in the class, but the preparation for algebra 1 is minimal. Other students who plan to attend college enroll in basic math, business math and something else to accumulate the number of credits in math to meet college entrance requirements. It is foolhardy and scary not to understand that your child may not have the math background to succeed in college-level math. Since students start talking about attending college in the intermediate grades or middle school, consider enrolling students in challenging classes in math or other difficult areas during summer school.

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In college, there is no support plan legally or even functionally. Instead, documentation review confirms that a student met criteria for a legal disability and specific functional limitations are identified. Accommodations, identified through interaction between the disability service provider and the student, are specifically designed to compensate for the functional limitations of the disability. Those accommodations are recorded in the student’s file in the disability office and relevant accommodations are conveyed to faculty at the beginning of each term. Thus, the agreement signed by the student only lists accommodations, but not if /then scenarios, what ifs, or assistance other than accommodations that are not germane to disability services in college.

Students with some disabilities have important social difficulties such as talking aloud off topic without stopping on request, yelling, threatening, refusing to participate, leaving the classroom without permission, refusing to enter a classroom, any number of problems. Students whose disabilities disrupt the classroom or cause social difficulties are warned and may be sent the college administration and charged with conduct violations or academic dismissal.This sounds harsh when it is your child involved, but employers are not required to retain staff whose behavior is disruptive to the workplace.

A student whose disability prevents access to information through print text may be accommodated with a reader, assistive technology, Brailled text, information about electronic libraries, etc. provided in real time. It is then the student’s responsibility to access non-print materials, listen to and comprehend content, complete assignments when due, and take tests over the content. No one monitors whether the material is accessed and understood any more than someone tracks students without disabilities reading schedule or success.

Students may be eligible for test accommodations, including extended time. However, they are responsible for their use of the accommodation. For example, if a taped exam is too soft or too loud, the student is expected to adjust the volume independently or ask for assistance. If a student does not understand a speaker, a disability services provider must be notified immediately. Leaving a test area without permission may lead to refusal for readmission. Disability services providers do not assume responsibility for student’s test problems unless notified and/or a reasonable alternative is not possible.

Exams are not modified in terms of content, wording, number of choices for multiple choice tests, length, grading criteria, etc, Do overs are not provided in college; faculty expect students to do better on subsequent exams rather than focus on earlier content. Accommodations are not increased because of academic difficulty. Students with disabilities compete on a level playing field, meaning they have an equal opportunity to try in comparison to students without disabilities. In college, leveling the playing field does not mean earning the same grades.

The disconnect between parental expectations for college disability services and special education received in high school is shocking. I think it is unlikely that this parent was lied to by a disability service provider. Some college representatives sent to recruit students are uninformed about the technicalities of disability services. I had parents ask me about FAPE even after receiving a tuition bill and demanded a LRE, and they surely were in one. More likely, in my estimation and experience, special education teachers are committed to providing quality service based on the IDEA to their students and have not been informed about the differences between high school and college.

The Altshuler resource center (ALEC) at Southern Methodist University has excellent information as does the OCR reading section at the Department of Education for parents to investigate.