Did you know most kids start talking about going to college in middle school? That’s when college prep begins, but slowly. If you wait for transition planning you are very late. Did you know some schools waive transition planning for students going to college? Sometimes transition planning for your student includes something like busy work such as writing down some facts about three colleges–well it is countable. You don’t want to be mean, but if kids will be taking algebra or something difficult in the fall, find a program or a nice summer school class to introduce the topic in the summer. Before high school starts, look at instate college entrance requirements and high school graduation requirements. Your student must meet high school graduation requirements that match college requirements. Take two years of foreign language in high school and there will be more foreign language requirements in college. Colleges do not waive foreign language very often (I’d plan on never). If a student is admitted without the language requirement met or another area is not met, those missing requirements must be met and the college graduation requirement has to be met too before college. Same is true of any other missing requirement. You will pay tuition for the make up classes and your student won’t get credit toward college graduation. Credits can be earned at a community college. Really difficult high school classes could be done in summer school. You gonna need to provide something nice as a reward for summer school. Something the kid needs for college like a new bike or wants desperately are good choices.Your budget could be up to the college tuition for remedial classes. If your son or daughter has difficulty reading, get audiobooks from the local library or from Reading for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFBD). It doesn’t have be the same version. Shakespeare hasn’t written anything new in some time. The movies where the actors use the actual reading are pretty cool. This sounds really mean but it isn’t. Whatever your son or daughter learns before high school will help them in college and beyond.
Great ideas & advice! My advice to parents is always to keep in mind their “end goal”. Some parents goal is to get as much support as possible in high school in order to get their child into the best college possible. One of the dangers in this is that you can make the child dependent on adult assistance, inflate their “stats”, thus they do get into that “good school”. However once there, they have to be much more independent, advocate for themselves to a higher degree, and many just can not do it. I’ve seen scores of kids with (and without) disabilities really flounder when going off to college dependent on adult intervention. More is not always better.
With a documented disability, such as dyslexia, colleges will not require high school foreign language, and will not require it in college unless it is required for their major.
Both kids majored in the sciences, neither took foreign language in college.
I am happy that your kids did not have to take foreign language in college. However, both majored in science. Programs in science and math may not include language because the curriculum is already packed with courses and language is not pertinent to the area of study. True, high schools very often do not require foreign language for students with disabilities, especially LD. However, once high school is over, students are no longer accommodated under an IEP or a 504 plan and new documentation is required. Colleges are not an extension of high school and neither adopt nor bow to the decisions made by the high school.
Students enroll in a particular school because they are otherwise qualified to meet academic requirements to graduate from that school. If language is part of a disability, then appropriate accommodation will be made. If the college has prerequisites in foreign language for admission, a student will be expected to make up those high school credits and must meet any foreign language requirements for college. I am hard-pressed to remember a student who received a waiver in foreign language in about 20 years. I have met students who never enrolled in foreign languages during four or so years of college . Other than foreign language, they met graduation requirements. Graduation was denied because a required course (s) was not taken with a passing grade==credits are more than occupying a seat. If my son or daughter was not required take foreign language, then I would see to it that they took foreign language in summer school during high or community/four-year college. Kids transfer in credits all the time.
Neither of my kids had a language related disability.
They each had three years of language in high school which was required to apply to their colleges.
We also know kids who had language requirements in high school waived, and attended top colleges, like Holyoke, which also waived language requirements.
Schools that will not, may offer ASL as an alternative.
I have a hearing loss. So far preparing for college(I’ll be a senior in the fall) has involved talking to whatever office deals with Students With Disabilities and seeing how they accomadate and if they have the assitive technology required for me. So far they have almost all been really nice.
Yes, schools very often offer language choices other than the usual Spanish, French, German. etc. ASL is an option and some recommend Latin.
Hey. ReadingClayGirl. If you use and require a particular technology and the office doesn’t have it, ask them what they use as an alternative. Schools are not legally allowed to deny auxiliary and services because of cost or used by only one student. If something is needed for academics and accommodates the functional limits of your hearing loss, the college can’t deny you accommodations you require to access classes, if you are admitted. But colleges are allowed to substitute a comparable accommodation even if you aren’t using it yet. if it doesn’t work for to compensate for your functional limitations after a reasonable trial to get used to it, then you go back and demand something else. Other things such as a alternatives to a fire alarm that aren’t strictly needed for educational purposes may not be provided. You may already own some of those things that you could take with you. Perhaps VR could help you get funding for some of your assistive technology needs. I’d sure visit them.
Thanks for the advice. @zannah I’m sure it will all work out.
I don’t think anyone said that they did. The colleges we’ve been researching want to see a recent diagnosis of dyslexia by a neurological psychologist, but I think they also look for a history of learning challenges. In other words, they don’t expect your kid to wake up at 17 and suddenly realize there’s a problem. There needs to be a paper trail starting when they were much younger. Documentation may include professional test results as well as pertinent school records.
We started planning for our children’s education from birth by promoting an interest in learning and exploration, and modeling the traits of lifelong learners. We didn’t relax our standards when we discovered our DD has dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia.
Dyslexics process language differently than other types of learners, but they’re just as bright. Our DD will graduate with 4 years of lab science (bio, chem, earth science, & physics), 4 years of Eng, 4 years of math (geometry to calculus), 4 years of history, 4 years of foreign language, and several electives. We didn’t do summer school. What we did do was intensive one on one tutoring to give her the skills she’ll need to be an independent, lifelong learner.
Both my boys are deaf and hear and speak thanks to bilateral cochlear implants. My older son struggled with languages and was language exempt in high school and in college - and was a theater and writing major. My younger son has done well with Spanish - go figure - and has taken 7 years so far. Each person is so different. One thing that was invaluable for both was having a full neuropsych evaluation done their senior year in HS - the eval detailed accommodations needed in addition to the rest of the report. In both boys’ cases, our neuropsych sent the report to the college they chose and made the request for services. We didn’t have issues at all getting services inside and outside the classroom. For example, we did request a bed shaker smoke alarm that both colleges provided. Also, they requested a flashing smoke detector in the shower area (all the places they’re without their “gear”). Again, that was provided without any squabble at all.
VR paid for the neuropsych evaluation, by the way. I’m pretty sure insurance would not have.
Like @austinmshauri said - our boys both are very bright, they just can’t hear.
@readingclaygirl - you are smart to visit with the disabilities coordinator at the schools you visit. Our boys met other students with hearing loss and were able to talk to them to be sure current students felt they were well accommodated. Ask on here on CC too. They can promise anything but in the end, the proof is if they do the right thing.
Thank you for your advice @BTMell It is very much appreciated. My hearing loss is much less severe than your sons but I have used an FM system since kindergarten. I’m really looking at smaller schools- I think the lack of lecture halls would be best. I just had a psychological evaluation and IQ test through school last year and the colleges say they will accept that documentation along with a letter from my audiologist. I have taken Spanish since middle school and will take college level Spanish for the second year. I Really have not had much contact with other kids/ teens/ young adults with hearing loss. But I’ll see if there are any who would speak to me.
Austinmshari is exactly right about establishing a history of disability and updated diagnosis, providing an extensive history of development and specific functional limitations as they remain the same and vary of time, history of impact of the disability on schooling and life and knowing what accommodation and services work. She was also fortunate to provide quality tutoring. If I got documentation from her I would have been beyond thrilled. BtMell also has information and documentation nailed. Hurray for both of you.
Parents of students from public schools often have more difficulty with documentation. The IDEA has a group of about 11 eligibilities for services and the student must require special education, meaning the disability has an adverse impact on learning. (Not all students with disabilities need special education. Very bright and capable students with LD or other disabilities as described above seek auxiliary aids and services from the most prestigious schools in the country, When you ask about the impact of their disability, the descriptions are very clear and compelling.)
Back to special education. Sometimes, I think it is unclear whether a student needs extra assistance and the eligibility is how they get those services. A disability such as LD has been identified by at least three ways in state school codes that I know. A student may not match the eligibility criteria in his or her state. There is a long-time movement to rights without labels, but the US government is all about sorting who does or does not merit assistance in one way or another. Personally, I would use the money for school lunches, solid tutoring, and good (new) textbooks kids can take home over spending time and money sorting though paperwork to determine if the kid is eligible for food or some services.
The things that alarm me abut sped, more particularly about IEPs include: 1) evaluating a child at a young age and services continue forever under that eligibility with little evaluation of overall functioning and on-oing needs, Have even seen problems such as difficulty with counting and knowing the letters of the alphabet n a high school IEP. Now assuming homework is a good thing and helps kids nail down academic skills, why do students with eligibilities get less homework than academically capable peers? If homework doesn’t secure academic skills, then what strategies are used to secure academic skills of kids with eligibilities? If homework doesn’t have an academic goal or impact, why must everybody read Silas Marner or…? Some kids with eligibilities also get an adapted form of classroom instruction that leads to learning less than their peers. How is that helpful to kids with academic challenges? In high school, leveling the playing field means earning the same grades as peers, but standards are lower. In college, leveling the playing field means functional limitations are compensated with accommodations so every one has an equal opportunity to try and succeed or fail. I am very concerned about what is happening to some kids out of over-concern for self esteem and too much “kindness,” because I have seen to many who are under-prepared. this in NO WAY means sped teachers are not capable and concerned. Instead the law and best practices seem wonky to me.
If your child needs disability services in college,then documentation of a legal/ civil rights disability must be submitted. Ahead.org has a good set of documentation guidelines. I’d get going on the documentation asap. The IDEA does not make schools do full evaluations for college. Tell them what you need to know and why (not college) and request a re=evaluation about junior year.
Most public schools don’t have the professional staff needed to make the diagnoses colleges will accept, so there’s no point in making them do evaluations for college admission. Dyslexia, for instance, has to be diagnosed by a neurological psychologist. I don’t know of any public school in our state that can afford to keep a neurological psychologist on the payroll.
I think the best place to get information about what documents colleges require from students with disabilities is the website of whatever college you’re interested in. Binghamton University, for example, has [6 different sets of guidelines](http://binghamton.edu/ssd/new-students/disability-documentation-guidelines.html) listed while Northwestern [has 9.](http://www.northwestern.edu/accessiblenu/students/considering-registering/documentation-guidelines/index.html) I’ll be checking the schools my daughter is interested in to find out exactly what they need from us. I know, in our case, that it’s going to include professional evaluation, so we’ll start there.
Our experience has been that colleges like to see a recent ( within three years) educational evaluation including testing. So since the testing that was used for high school was older than that, we needed new evaluations.
We used an educational psychologist, but it would depend on the disability and what accomodations you needed.
In my case my testing was done last year(as a junior) so it works. My 504 case manager told me not to even acquire about disability services until I was accepted and not to mention it at all on my application. I didn’t follow her advice, it just didn’t make sense to me or my parents. And my essay is on my hearing loss and how I have came to terms with it and embraced it as part of my life. It’s very positive. My ap lit teacher loved the version of it I wrote for an assignment.
Although schools are not required to do testing as part of the three year re=evaluation, I do both cognitive & achievement testing on all of our classified students when what will be their last reval comes due.
D will be a college freshman this fall. We spent a ton of time on these issues the last several years. We visited the Disability Office at every school she visited. We initially struggled with whether to disclose on applications, She has significant language/reading/dyslexia issues and her IEP granted a foreign language waiver, so she did disclose to explain that. She applied to 10 colleges, all of which offered a substitution/cultural class to her and waived their foreign language requirement.
We made sure we had current (within 3 years) testing. She had no problem qualifying for college services. I was pleased with the various college disability offices and their response. We are extremely happy with Disabilities at her chosen college. They have been in contact throughout the summer and will have her books on audio files, etc. before school starts.
Both our boys went through the same process, @sryrstress and we had positive encounters with all disability offices as well. Both boys were well supported in their respective colleges although neither used much of what was offered. Both attend(ed) small LACS which for them was in and of itself an accommodation. Like you, they knew where to go if they needed help.
This was very informative reading- about to launch into this whole process of providing documentation and requesting accommodations for LD with my son who will be a transfer student in Fall 2016 at either UCD, UCSB or UCSC. (Still deciding).
He has been in community college for past few years and is now 25. At first he did not take advantage of accommodations, but eventually he did. Only at my insistence did the CC Disabled Students Program update his testing this past January.
Hopefully the CC will communicate with the new school and provide what they need? Because it has been mostly out of my hands since he left high school. I got a quick peek at the updated testing, but my son basically did not share it with me. I really hope it will be sufficient.