If you want to learn more about executive functions, Peg Dawson has written good books available on Amazon.
The IEP and transition plan expire when a student graduates from high school. You will need to look at registration requirements of the school your student will attend. To obtain accommodations, you will need to submit documentation that contains a disability diagnosis and, more importantly, the specific functional limitations associated with the diagnosis. Please look at Section 504 regulations pertinent to postsecondary education. Services such as tutoring are available to all students at the college learning center.
The special program that my son attends wants to see his IEP in order to help him best. You are right that they will not work on the same goals or offer the same services, but it’s good to have. If your kid is close to his triennial if you have an IEP (where they do more extensive testing than the yearly), it’s worth it to ask for it in senior year so the assessments are fresh.
My D did not have a plan in high school but got accommodations in college with proper documentation which included recommendations for appropriate accommodations.
@zannah In order to get services in college you will need to show your high school IEP or 504 along with other documentation. Without that, no services. This is why one is needed in high school.
A transition plan is used to show prospective schools disabilities offices what the prospective students needs and to find out if the school can meet those needs.
My daughter is a homeschooler. She’s never had an IEP or a 504. We have to provide documentation from our neuropsych evaluation. Families should check college websites to see what they require.
My friend’s daughter now lives at home and commutes to a ‘not perfect’ local university after a year at a perfect school that was a disaster. This student has other medical issues, but was always a very good student. Living on campus, several thousand miles from home, was just too much all at once. Having to handle meds and a social life and eating and sleep changes was just too much for her. She does great in the commuting situation, and I don’t think her parents give too much help with school other than asking about it, what the schedule is for assignments and exams. It’s really more of a conversation than direct reminders.
It might get better, and OP’s daughter might find better ways to deal with her organizational issues. My daughter absolutely must write things down. She has to see the assignment due date on a calendar. She must write down what she needs to do, what she needs to buy, when she needs to be places.
GloriaVaughan, your information is just not correct and I want to make sure that people know that. Many of us have students who were diagnosed after high school but before college, or during college, and never had services in high school but had accommodations at college. What is needed, most often, is a full neuropsych. evaluation.
twoinanddone and I have had similar experiences with a kid who went away for a year, then returned home. Mine lives independently now and runs her own life, takes two classes a semester and works. That doesn’t mean that that first year away at college wasn’t useful. It was three hours away and if I had it do do over again, I would have tried to convince her to be closer. Luckily it was a pretty drive!
But it is not so clear cut in college…accommodations cannot pose undue financial or administrative burdens on the school or substantially change the academic program. There is room for interpretation. Case law is being established in the courts. For the most part, colleges are pretty darn good at accommodating but it can take a year for a student to figure out what the system is for accessing help. Often it is not the disabilities office, which one person termed “the guard dog of the curriculum.”
I really can’t thank everyone enough for the thoughtful, honest and helpful posts. I wish I could thank everyone by name but there are too many of you! I am overwhelmed and so grateful. I am going to adopt many of these suggestions immediately. I will definitely make arrangements for her to be evaluated by a good psychiatrist. I absolutely agree with the comment that just knowing this is a “real” issue might help her understand that she has to deal with it differently than everyone else around her. Not a good or bad thing, just different. I doubt she would be willing to try any type of medication, but we won’t know until we have this looked at.
I don’t think community college makes sense in this case. The problem is organizational, not academic. However, we are giving serious consideration to a school within commuting distance. We have identified at least 1 that might not be perfect but good enough. There are at least two that are about 1 hour away. Not exactly commuting, but close enough to touch base when needed.
A lot of you have mentioned accommodations. I’m not exactly sure how that would help in our case. She doesn’t need extra time on tests or assistive devices of any kind.
I also want to really thank those of you who pointed out the futility of simply letting her sink or swim on her own. I actually did that a little bit this past year, before I understood how little control she has over this. I “allowed” her to sink and lose a good internship that she really enjoyed. She was miserable but it didn’t prompt her to “try harder.” It was then that I understood that there is nothing volitional in this. I should have known this before. No one wants to fail to hand in homework they have actually done. No one wants to walk out of the class with the finished assignment in their hand. Asking her to just “do better” is like asking an Alzheimer patient to just “try to remember.” She doesn’t want this, but she needs help to figure out how to solve it or work around it.
I am going to spend some time carefully re-reading the recommendations here and will keep you all updated. Thank, you from the bottom of my heart.
The whole premise of fixing this is that she does have control…yes, she may have to do extra steps, write reminders, set alarms, check planners hourly, or whatever…but she will need to find a work around solution that doesn’t involve you, because you won’t always be there. Kids don’t leave college much because they are not smart enough to do the work, but because they fail at the organizational skills necessary for adult living. Hence the need for a diagnosis and treatment plan asap.
Just to clarify, a psychiatrist can diagnose ADHD (often with questionnaire and interview) but you really want a full neuropsychological evaluation which is done by a psychologist/neuropsychologist.
It’s so nice that you have insight into the effort part here, that she can be trying hard but not succeeding. There is a great book called :The Myth of Laziness" that you might like.
Accommodations can include single room, testing by herself, notes from class, extensions on assignments (if she didn’t hand it in for instance), postponements, excused absences (usually for medical appts.) and so on. Sometimes once registered with documentation, an advisor will be assigned to help on a weekly basis with time management, but at some schools you really have to hire privately. Tutors may help too.
Every school is different and it can be hard to tell how it works, before you attend. In our experience. Just know it isn’t always the disabilities office that is most helpful, but registering is needed to access those other kinds of help.
compmom, If you read what the OP said, her daughter is still in high school, so what I stated is correct. I have a child with a 504 and a degree in education. It is easier to get the accommodations in college if they were already in place in high school.
You didn’t say it would be easier to get services with an IEP or 504, you said if she doesn’t have an IEP or 504 she won’t get them at all. Both statements are incorrect.
You have to read each college’s website to find out what they require.
[Vanderbilt University](https://www.vanderbilt.edu/student-access/disability/) also requires an outside evaluation. They specifically state that an IEP and/or 504 doesn’t normally provide the documentation necessary to get approval for accommodations. Students must have an outside evaluation completed, and the report must be submitted on the professional’s letterhead, to be eligible to receive accommodations.
I would expect to see similar requirements at other colleges. As with most things college related, read the website of each college carefully to make sure you submit the materials they require.
My only experience was dealing with a small private college with one D but before she matriculated there, I consulted with the disability offices at all the colleges she was considering–all small privates–and they all seemed similarly willing to meet our needs, though one offered to buy a specific device for her use. This was without a previous plan but with extensive documentation of testing by two professionals, neuropsychologist and audiologist.
My friend did not have such a good experience with a public college though her son had a plan in place since elementary school. He had been seeing a psychiatrist for ADHD but had no neuropsychological testing. I don’t think he got approval for accommodations, and I think the mom let it go rather than fight for it.
I noticed when we were looking for colleges for D, public colleges seemed to require a lot of documentation, particularly for ADHD. People seem to think a doctor’s note will suffice, but that doesn’t always seem to be the case.
One difficulty one could run into is the thinking that if a student is passing classes without a plan in high school, there might be a reluctance on the part of a disability office to grant accommodations in college. I don’t agree with that thinking, but I think it’s out there. It’s the same as we sometimes see in schools, where a bright student with a disability doesn’t get help because they aren’t failing. I’ve had that problem with two kids. It doesn’t matter that the stress of trying to compensate makes them sick.
There are different rules for meeting the needs of students at the high school and college level. In college, the curriculum can’t be modified.
@austinmshauri If you have gone through the IEP or 504 process, then you would know that medical documentation is necessary in order to qualify for either one.
I have a younger D who is has terrible EF skills, like truly terrible. It affects every part of life. We did go through extensive testing, but H was opposed to implementing a plan in high school and D strongly agreed with him. It’s been frustrating. My goal is for her to graduate high school, and it’s looking very good right now. We have an excellent CC with a matriculation agreement with a good local public university, so that’s encouraging.
It is very hard to see bright kids face these obstacles.
OP, it might help to get a professional evaluation for your daughter. It won’t be free like testing through the school, but we found the information invaluable. It takes several hours spread over a couple days, and it’s not inexpensive, but it helped my daughter to have an explanation for her struggles and guidance for how to best deal with the causes of them.
It would be illegal to deny accommodations to a student with a documented disability if…If is big idea. For example a student who qualifies for extended time in a specific area such as a reading disorder would likely not qualify for extended time in math unless the math class has an important reading component. A student who was granted 1.5 time but is not performing well on tests would not likely be granted 2.0 time to improve test performance.
Students with documented disabilities must meet all requirements and standards imposed on other students. The diagnosis is not the critical element in selecting accommodations. The really, really huge issues are functional limitations. Students who can’t access print text because of visual or a reading disability are often accommodated with electronic test, reading machines, audio or taped text, live reader and so on.
So, functional limitations for a documented disability are compensated for with accommodations. After the appropriate accommodation is in place, the student has the same right as other classmates to succeed or fail on their own merits. College accommodations are never provided to give a student a little extra help. High schools may provide a level playing field by assuring students with exceptionalities that they will receive comparable grades as students not part of special education. In postsecondary school, accommodations are approved to compensate the functional limitations associated with a documented disability. A level playing field in college means the limitations of a disability are accommodated so that students succeed or fail on their academic merit.
Denial of accommodations when there is a documented disability generally means that a requested accommodation is denied when it is not pertinent to the functional limitations of the documented disability. If a student is denied an accommodation that compensates for functional limitations of the documented disability, than contact an experienced attorney.