Can anyone speak to the availability of support for these issues at college? We’re specifically looking at Brandeis and UMass Amherst/Commonwealth honors college, but I also have general questions about whether supports at college are considered accommodations (as in her 504 plan) or more general student supports. Would they be part of disability services, or should I be inquiring elsewhere, like in specific academic departments?
Did you check on their websites? I see UMass Amherst and Brandeis both have info on their websites:
https://www.umass.edu/disability/students
https://www.brandeis.edu/accessibility/types.html
I would contact Disability Services directly. If it is important enough for you to be concerned about it now, by all means get ahead of it so if you find you are missing something, you still have time. Some collegese require a diagnosis before offering certain accommodations. What worked for a student in high school, may not be enough in college. They may need additional forms filled out by your doctor. I wish you the best
I’m not sure my comment is terribly helpful, but my ADD/poor executive function son’s high school journey was four years preparing to make him independent. He had tutoring 3 times a week freshman year, twice a week sophomore, once a week junior year and finally no tutoring senior year. I’m assuming your daughter is a junior now. If at all possible that’s the focus I’d take – tutoring/coaching to manage school work.
The good news is that there is much less busy work in college and my son has found that to be helpful. He ended up at Oxford Emory, you might take a look. It’s a very small campus-- less for my son to deal with. But he will only be there 2 years and then he’ll go to Emory’s main campus. Theoretically this allows him to adjust to college in a small setting, and by junior year he will be used to college classes, the Emory system and have his circle of friends. So far it seems to be working this way.
Good luck, it is tough with ADD kids!
Oh dear, it sounds like we are way off base. I’m talking about a kid who’s about to graduate HS and is currently deciding between two excellent (and challenging) college programs. Obviously she did well enough that both of these schools think she can succeed there. But can she? Should we be looking at engaging some kind of coach to help her develop better time management skills while in college? Should we be encouraging her to take a gap year to prepare better before sending her off to sink or swim in higher education? I’m growing more concerned…
Many colleges provide accomodations for learning disabilities, including executive functioning and ADD/ADHD. The accommodations include longer times for taking tests, recording lectures, and so on. Typically, you fill out a form with the disability office, provide documentation of the disability (neuropsych/IEP), and request the accommodations you need. I know that UMass Lowell has a very modern infrastructure where all lectures are automatically video recorded, and students can access them on the college network. I don’t know if Umass Amherst also does this, but if it does, it’s a great resource for not just the students who miss a lecture but those with disabilities that need to go over parts of a lecture again. My son is at Skidmore with accommodations for executive functioning and doing okay. We filled out the forms during the summer before Freshman year. Don’t panic yet… walk through the disability office section on the web sites, and follow up with a call to the disability office. Ask for the paperwork and look through it if you want to compare that aspect of each school now. For the extra time for tests, schools typically have a system in place where the student registers through the disability office for the test and sometimes takes the test proctored at the disability office. Ask each school what system they have in place for test taking (It’s a good starting point). Obviously, it’s not a perfect system, and there will be the occasional professor who doesn’t really grasp learning differences at all because they’ve been living under a rock somewhere. Your daughter is not alone…there are many students with learning disabilities succeeding at college with accomodations.
You need to work with the disabilities office at the schools to see what they can and will offer.
Keep in mind…college accommodations are not exactly like HS ones. Your daughter will need to be a good self advocate. There won’t be a case manager explaining everything to all of her instructors. There won’t be a case manager or anyone else chasing her down to get assignments completed and turned in on time. There won’t be a special education resource room where she is required to attend. She will need to self advocate, and this includes sometimes requesting an accommodation, going to the tutorial center when needed, etc.
Even the BEST college accommodations are worthless if the student doesn’t access them.
You may be able to hire tutor for planning, but it may not be needed if there is tutoring center or similar coach in disabilities office. Can a student bring their syllabi to disabilities office and work out a calendar of mini deadlines? To break out steps for papers or study guides for midterms?
You need to contact each of the school’s disability offices and find out what kind of services your D will be eligible for. They will be able to answer your questions more fully once they understand her situation a little more.
These comments have all been very helpful. I’ve had preliminary conversations with disability offices at both schools and feel much better prepared for next steps.
This website is quite extraordinary. There are so many steps and considerations involved in parenting a child through the transition to college. I’ve been amazed and impressed with the quality of information and understanding offered through CC.
Thanks everyone!
As the parent of a high-stats kid with serious ADD & executive function issues, our experience with the disability office at a large, selective OOS flagship has been both better and worse than I expected. On the plus side, getting accommodations for extra time on tests was easy and instantaneous: S and I met with the head of the disability office during orientation, provided copies of his testing and previous accommodations, and he was registered with the disability office and granted 50% extra time on all tests (and even a notetaker if he wanted it) on the spot. OTOH, when we asked about getting help with executive function issues — such as being able to meet with someone once a week, or even every other week, to look at his schedule and upcoming assignments and help him plan a study schedule and stay on track, we got a snotty reply along the lines of “This is college — students are expected to be able to handle those sorts of things themselves.” So apparently some aspects of ADD (needing more time) are real and deserving of accommodations, but other aspects (EF issues) are just laziness/immaturity/not trying hard enough, so it’s sink or swim for you, kiddo!
He also tried meeting with an Academic Coach, which is a free service offered to all students, not just kids with disabilities, but she basically had the same attitude — “Well, I’m not going to do YOUR job for you, but I can give you the tools to do it yourself. Have you tried making a To Do list?” Gee, why didn’t he think of that? He did try meeting with her weekly for a few weeks but said it was a total waste of time; she would basically just ask if he was on schedule and then tell him to do better next week. :-/
Kids who can’t write have access to unlimited free help at the writing center. Kids who struggle with the level of material in their classes have access to free (or paid) tutoring, study groups, extended office hours, etc. Kids who struggle with executive function issues… are just SOL. And things are so much more complicated now than when we (parents) were in college. We used to get a printed syllabus and a textbook, and we read the text, took tests, wrote essays, and turned in our papers. Now everything is online in a system like Canvas or Blackboard, and every prof sets up the class in a different way, with assignments listed in different sections (and often split among several different sections even in one class), multiple ways and places for uploading assignments, new software to learn, online discussions to keep track of, peer reviews, due dates changed at the last minute, blah blah blah. Honestly, it’s a nightmare for a kid with severe ADHD, and they get ZERO help with this stuff. 
If your DD is trying to decide between Brandeis and UMass, I would encourage you both to meet with the head of disability at both schools and ask very specific questions about what kinds of assistance (if any) would be available for EF issues. Be really explicit: “D struggles with A, B, and C, and ideally we would like for her to have access to services such as X, Y, and Z. Can your office provide those? If not, can you recommend other offices or resources through which she might access those services?” I ended up asking on a FB group for parents of students at the university if anyone knew of other services available or even an “EF coach” type person we could hire, and several parents replied that they just ended up functioning as the EF coach themselves, because they couldn’t find any other option. So I’d be prepared for that possibility, too, if you can’t get the services D needs through the school.
Providing an executive function coach would cost the school money, and they do not have to provide services that cost them more money. Some schools have programs to provide these things, but charge extra for them.
Maybe I should start a new thread, but I wonder what some good careers are for kids with this profile (super smart, super disorganized etc). I just don’t see my son sitting behind a desk for 8+ hours a day . . . . Anyone have any thoughts?
@twoinanddone The university provides free academic coaching and writing help for all students, with or without disabilities, which obviously costs them money and which they are under no obligation to provide. It does not cost them any more money if the academic coach the student meets with for 30 minutes per week helps them organize their study schedule or just sits there chatting and asking if they made a To Do list. Executive function issues are a common component of ADHD, which can effect academic success just as much, or more, as slow reading speed or problems focusing, which the school has no trouble acknowledging are significant disabilities worthy of accommodations. So they are providing free academic coaching to students without any disabilities, while denying appropriate academic coaching to students with diagnosed disabilities. I have talked to parents with students at other universities who have similar complaints — no problem getting extra time, note takers, the right to record lectures, etc., but zero help with the kinds of EF issues that are often a bigger part of the problem.
All the students can take advantage of the accommodations for tutoring, writing clinics, etc., just like they can all benefit from the library and the rec center The school is under no obligation to provide that extra help or facilities but most do to make it a better learning experience. Sure, some students will use the services more than others but they are available to all.
If the semester is 15 weeks long and an executive function coach (clearly the standard adviser didn’t provide what you needed) has to meet with a student for 30 minutes a week, that’s 7.5 hours of time. $20/hr? $50? That’s a lot of money per student. Giving extra time for a test costs very little if anything. I have a daughter who could have benefited from an executive function coach but her IEP had expired before college. She had to make do with my reminding her of things, to check off the requirements on the syllabus, to keep up with reading.
But there are some schools that do offer more and the OP is right to search for one of those schools. A friend’s daughter started at Brandeis and even with all the services (and she got a lot), she was not successful. Ended up at a much bigger state school but lived at home so her parents and private therapists could provide the services she needed. She still got services like extra time and registering for classes first, but those didn’t cost the school extra.
With the ideas you all have shared, I will be asking much more specific questions at the disability offices of the schools we’re considering. I’d be ok paying for a coach to help my child develop better skills to manage her time; I simply don’t know what kind of support would be effective or how to make it acceptable/welcome for her. I feel like if services were provided through the school, she might be more able to accept them. But who knows?
" I have talked to parents with students at other universities who have similar complaints — no problem getting extra time, note takers, the right to record lectures, etc., but zero help with the kinds of EF issues that are often a bigger part of the problem. "
When our child was diagnosed with ADHD inattentive type, the neuropsych’s position was that there were significant challenges with EF, but that this was not considered a disability, as these are skills that may well still be developing. Given that assessment (which I didn’t think to question; do others see it differently?), it makes sense to me that EF issues wouldn’t necessarily be covered by IDEA protections in the way that other accommodations would/should be.
There are some colleges with this type of support available for a cost. I believe University Of Connecticut offers this.
Did you research this before applications were sent? Do any of the acceptances have this level of support.
Also see this resource, The Learning Disabilities Association of America, and the FAQs, and even apps available to help with executive function.
https://ldaamerica.org/faqs/
" Additionally, there are many apps available if you search online for “executive functioning apps.” Two good places to begin searching are the “Tools for Life App Finder” and the app finder at Learning Works for Kids."
To your question @thumper1 No, I was unfortunately oblivious during the application process. It’s only since acceptances came that she’s shown how scared and overwhelmed she feels about time management at college. She shows NO excitement about this next step—just fear.
I’m seriously wondering if we should encourage a gap year to allow time for more research, unwinding, brain development, etc. Her dad doesn’t like that idea, but could probably be persuaded. She doesn’t like the idea either… but she’s not liking most ideas lately.
IDEA (an IEP) expires at high school graduation. Many colleges will continue some services if requested, but they do not have to.
What does kick in is the Americans with Disabilities act, and that includes ( 509 plan).