Public to Private with ADHD (Accommodations )
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Anonymous
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Our DS will be entering 9th at a private, coming from public and has maintained a 504 plan due to ADHD and Anxiety.
The only accommodation he uses infrequently is one that allows him extra time to complete makeup work when he misses school due to a doctors appointment. It reduces his anxiety since he is a perfectionist and stresses out over missing assignments and missed lectures. He does not use extended time during tests or have any other accommodations that we would consider continuing. During admissions we had a brief conversation about 504's etc and we were told that in order to continue any accommodations we would need to get a neuropsych eval. Admission was not contingent on any eval. In terms of focus and executive function, he's more than fine as long as we have access to medication. We did experience stress/ lack of focus due to medication shortages this fall, but it did not effect grades. I'm just not sure that he needs any accommodations in a private setting. What are accommodations like in a private setting? Anyone else BTDT? |
Anonymous
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I'm a tutor. Tons of kids in even the top privates have accommodation and need and use them. Anxiety and ADHD are real disorders. Your question is like, "my kid needs a wheelchair but I'm not sure he will need it in private".
Your kid can have accommodations and choose to decline to use them in any situation. You want the accommodations in place in case your kid experiences a worsening of anxiety in HS or experiences a diminished ability to compensate in the face of increased expectations - both very common in HS. You also want accommodations in place for SAT, AP and IB exams. Also, sometimes the meds that helped kids manage like more typical students, and thus diminish the need for accommodations, sometimes stop working or need to be adjusted, in which case the student might have to rely more on accommodations until meds are sorted. There are so many unknowns about how your kid will react to this transition. I would never give up accommodations at a moment of transition. Also, grades alone are not a measure of "effect of disorder". I have met plenty of straight A kids in advanced classes who are working so hard to overcome their disability without accoms that it is making them even more depressed. They are like ducks serenely moving on the water but frantically paddling underneath to keep going. They shouldn't be forced to self-accommodate by taking less challenging classes than they are intellectually capable of just because they need extra time. Finally, you want to maintain a history of the plan so that accommodations can also be in place in college, which is a level at which some kids compensation tools will be overwhelmed. |
Anonymous
| Huge +1 for thinking about college admission tests. It will be far easier to start the process for that now, rather than junior year. |
Anonymous
| Most privates do not extend assignment due dates. |
Anonymous
He tests fine. He has never needed a testing accommodation. I would say that the anxiety is more pervasive than the ADHD. In public we don't have many if any accommodations that address the anxiety. What would be some accommodations that we should look out for in HS, ICE? I think the first poster made some great points about transition periods and now I'm second guessing. |
Anonymous
Definitely not true. It's nothing official, but privates encourage students to advocate for themselves and ask for flexibility if they need it. |
Anonymous
| If truly the only accommodation he needs is the ability to hand in assignments late when he misses class for a doctor's appointment, I don't think he needs accommodations at all. First, how often is he missing school for doctors appointments? Second, it's been my experience that if he communicates with his teachers ahead of time (which he would need to do even with an accommodation) and tells them that he has a doctor's appointment on Monday so can he hand in the assignment on Tuesday, 99% will say yes. |
Anonymous
The above has definitely not been our experience - many old school teachers would refuse to extend the assignment. Their attitude would be - you knew you had this appointment and it's your job to plan around it, and/or you should have asked a friend what the assignment was and completed it. Many kids with anxiety have therapy appointments at least once a week. These appointments are extremely difficult to get after school so many have to go during school. By the time you add in driving back and forth, the appointment block can be 3 hours. Then there is the fact that therapy sometimes leaves one emotional exhausted and still thinking about what was discussed in therapy - not great for your ability to focus. And, some kids will have periods of worsening when they do therapy more than 1x a week. Would you insist that a kid leaving school after lunch one day a week for kidney dialysis not have an accommodation? |
Anonymous
I do not believe this is legal. Even private schools have to comply with the ADA. Private schools may have a policy of extending dates only after negotiation with a teacher, but that's a crappy way to handle things - you are forcing the kid to frequently navigate at a power disadvantage, which is demoralizing. And, you are putting a person who is unqualified at disability decision-making (not legally qualified and frequently not educationally qualified because they have no or little understanding of disability) in charge of disability decision-making - that is a recipe for conflict and institutional legal liability. |
Anonymous
I'm the first poster. Accommodations to address anxiety would depend very much on the parameters of anxiety - some kids get flash passes to nurse or counselor if they need a moment to step outside of class and breath and settle their anxiety. Some kids who are anxious about public speaking might be allowed a more scaffolded approach to a speech assignment. Some kids with slow processing might get a pre-warning before being asked the answer to a question in class. Some with social anxiety might get more care in groupwork selection. All of which could be defined by a neuropsych. BTW, you are not getting accommodations in public school not because your kid doesn't need them but because public schools suck at accommodating any mental health need. Many of my tutorial clients have had to fight for obviously needed accoms. Also, grades are not a measure of "not needing" accommodations. They are one piece to look at. If the anxious kid is staying up until 2 am to complete homework and losing sleep worrying over having to do X, but still getting good grades, there's a problem that might benefit from an accommodation. Again, the specific need for and type of accommodation requires asking a lot more questions and testing of the student to explore the underlying basis of anxiety and guess who is best suited to do that ..... a neuropsych or psychoed assessor. What is there to second guess? You can afford to pay for private school, so why are you reluctant to get a full neuropsych assessment? It's not a money problem, is it? What's 4-5K on top of private school tuition for the next 4-7 years? Why on earth would you not want the neuropsych, which is going to tell you in great detail all strengths and weaknesses. You might even find out that your kid has an underlying weakness that is causing his anxiety and that can be addressed and improved or accommodated. And you will for sure find out strengths - strengths you can build on and the kid can feel good about. Why would you not ask for accommodations? Are you afraid it will mark him somehow - explain more? Are you afraid it will make him soft - i.e. he just needs to toughen up and get over his anxiety? are you afraid the school is lying when it says no impact to admissions? I apologize if my tone seems pushy but I genuinely do not understand why you wouldn't get the neuropsych and ask for whatever accoms are appropriate, especially when the school has said it will not affect admissions? |