IEP to 504
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Anonymous
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My child is currently in a reevaluation period for her IEP. I was expecting them to end her IEP and after seeing her 5-day documents I’m even more convinced that is the direction the school is going. I agree that she no longer needs specialized instruction to handle her ADHD, anxiety, and math challenges. However, she still needs her accommodations, especially her extended time and flash pass for the counselor and broken down assignments. Therefore it seems that a 504 will meet her needs very well.
After we have her reevaluation meeting this week, what is the process to requesting and getting a 504? Does the request have to be in writing similar to the IEP? Who does it get addressed to? Based on the testing that was done, she should qualify easily for the 504 (all disabilities were confirmed and teachers reported that she needed (and used) her accommodations. But for the time between the IEP ending (this week) and trying to get a 504 (sometime in the future) does she lose all of her accommodations or do teachers give some leeway? Anyone been through this? Thanks! |
Anonymous
| Before signing the docs to end the IEP...insist on getting the 504 in place. It is an entirely different team. The IEP team just left us to contact the counseling dept and start fresh with them. They also tried to convince us that teacher's 'best practices' would give our kid all he needed. No way would I leave it at that. |
Anonymous
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I would keep fighting for that IEP, OP. The big difference is that (at least in our school system), there is no case manager for 504s, and the student has to wrangle with teachers directly if there's a problem. Given your daughter has needs in several areas, I would argue that a case manager still needs to oversee her progress, and that she needs to keep the IEP.
My son switched from an IEP to a 504 in 12th grade. He could have switched before, but his IEP team knew him from middle school, liked him, and didn't want to wean him off too early. The transition to the 504 was automatic: I was sent documents by email. However, DS ended up having problems with a really quirky and rigid math teacher, and it snowballed until he nearly failed that class, because the regular counselor didn't do much either. His previous case manager would not have let it slide like this all year! IEPs and 504s don't show up on college applications, only resource class does, since it's a formal course. So don't be worried about keeping the IEP relative to college admissions. |
Anonymous
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Our daughter changed her sophomore year and it was frustrating. We never received a copy of her 504 and when we did it missed any accommodations for her dysgraphia and only had ADHD accommodations. We ended up almost needing to start over. I wish we had told them we wanted to see a complete 504 before we agreed to cancel our IEP.
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Anonymous
| You can only have an IEP or a 504 at one time, so I don’t think you can set up the 504 before canceling the IEP. |
Anonymous
This is OP- this is my understanding too, but are there any interim ways to help kids not lose their supplemental aids cold turkey? Can you setup the meeting right away? I know there are no time frames for the 504 which makes it scary for a child who needs those supports to be successful. * She is a senior and I don’t think she needs an IEP, but she’s had support in place since 1st grade so losing it all would be overwhelming for a child ruled by her anxiety! |
Anonymous
| Keep the IEP, but with "fading" supports. |
Anonymous
| When my son went from IEP to 504, we had back to back meetings and there was no delay or disruptions in accommodations. |
Anonymous
Thank you! Who scheduled the 504 meeting? Because when I asked the school team, they told me I had to wait to see what would happen at the IEP meeting first, but the documents home and the conversations with her case manager make it obvious! |
Anonymous
Also, did they tell you beforehand that they were ending the IEP? It seems like we are playing games. |
Anonymous
The school counselor handled the 504. They weren’t so transparent when it came to telling me about ending the IEP. They wanted to do it in person and I am one who likes an advance agenda so I can plan. But it was fine. They were patient and they were right. There wasn’t a need for specialized instruction anymore. And if I’m remembering correctly the school counselor was the one who contacted me. |
Anonymous
| Reach out to your school counselor and discuss your concerns |
Anonymous
| What county are you in? There has been a move across school districts in VA to have one school-based coordinator who handles both IEPS and 504s, which makes the process much smoother, and has other organizational advantages. This was an initiative started pre-pandemic and I’m not sure all counties have completed the transition. I’m also not sure if MD is doing something different. Just call your school and ask about the process. Not needing an IEP is a good thing—don’t fight for services that aren’t necessary as some have suggested. Just really put your foot down wanting an immediate 504. |
Anonymous
| The IEP takes about 48 hours or so to be finalized in the online IEP management system when it's closed and a student's exited from special education. Once that's done, a 504 meeting can be scheduled. It sounds like everything's there that you need (diagnosis, need for and use of accommodations, etc.) to have the 504 eligibility meeting/504 development meeting, so the counselor should be able to get that meeting done rather quickly. Ask that they invite the special ed teacher, or get a copy of the previous IEP so they can make sure all the needed accommodations are included. |
Anonymous
| I don’t know your kid, but I’d be loathe to pull the IEP. It offers protections and the 504 is harder to enforce. |