504 accommodation ideas for this

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I would ask him what else he uses the cubby for? Discuss whether it's appropriate to just use his backpack for everything instead of the cubby.

The thing about ADHDers is that our brains work well but not in the same way. If they are supposed to unpack their backpack and put stuff in their cubby and then take things from their cubby during the day and then pack up at the end of the day, my question would be, why can't he just use the backpack for everything? Organize his back pack like a traveling cubby. Folders with different colored notebooks or ribbons to ID. Pencil bag clipped to the inside top, etc.

I hate cubbies when they are those small ones above - they're too flat and high to see what's in them. And everything is just jumbled in one pile. ADHDers often need to see things. That's why we leave stuff out and why we have piles of things on our desk. If we don't see them, they don't exist.

[Anonymous]

As an accommodation, I would ask if there's a way to have copies of the homework available electronically to print at home, or if they are all in a math workbook, a duplicate copy to take home. (If they are official Eureka math homework sheets, you can get them all free online, but you'd have to know which ones. My kids couldn't even remember that.)

[Anonymous]

As a HS Sped Teacher, extra curricular activities are dependent on academic success. If a child is struggling academically because they cannot handle the commitment of their activity (sports is the most common one we see in HS), they need to stop the activity until their grades improve. IEPs don’t cover football.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a HS Sped Teacher, extra curricular activities are dependent on academic success. If a child is struggling academically because they cannot handle the commitment of their activity (sports is the most common one we see in HS), they need to stop the activity until their grades improve. IEPs don’t cover football.

While I don’t disagree that academics are more important than sports, and that sort of incentive would work for some kids, dropping extracurricular activities should not be your go to move. Rarely is it going to solve the underlying issues, and especially for kids with disabilities they can provide important social outlets.

For this kid, I suspect he would have some other reason to rush out of school at the end of the day- he’s an elementary student! All dropping safety patrol would do is make him feel less competent, less excited for school, and overall less than his peers.

[Anonymous]

Do you you pick him up? I used to ask at pick up and make him go back in or we had a few return trips to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a HS Sped Teacher, extra curricular activities are dependent on academic success. If a child is struggling academically because they cannot handle the commitment of their activity (sports is the most common one we see in HS), they need to stop the activity until their grades improve. IEPs don’t cover football.

This is actually not true for many extra-curricular activities. IME, many school administrators automatically assume bad grades are because of the participation in an extra-curricular. In reality, the analysis is highly dependent on the facts.

Is there a GPA requirement for all football players (or school patrol) to be eligible to play? Then on the surface, the disabled student would also have to meet the GPA requirement. But, if, on closer inspection, is the reason that an ADHD player is not eligible because he has otherwise good grades which have been dragged down by assignments that have not been turned in at all or in a timely fashion? Then it’s possible he is being denied access to football because of disability, further analysis would have to be done on the types of supports he was getting in school, whether they’re adequate and whether teachers are complying.

There is also a special problem that kids with ADHD or other disabilities for which extra-time is an accommodation. Extra-time is often given, but without reduction in work or ability to reschedule deadlines. If a student has extra-time, that is not just extra-time on tests, it is extra-time on everything - all assignments. It is impossible and discriminatory to make disabled students spend 50% more of their life on school work, particularly when insistence on that means that kids don’t get access to extra-curricular.

I have personal experience with this when a DC of mine had a medical issue which meant that DC could not attend school full-time and even had extra-time and re-scheduling deadlines accommodations. However, despite limited ability to be in school, DC did continue to attend an extra-curricular activity (not a sport) which had no grade requirement. School officials came to the extra-curricular and harassed and bullied DC, saying DC could not come back to the extra-curricular until DC was back in school full-time.

I made it clear to the school that this extra-curricular was an important social support for DC while recovering medically and to refuse to allow DC to participate was discriminatory. I escalated that fight and won. It is very clear under the law that disabled students have rights to participate in extra-curricular, but the analysis of any one situation is highly fact dependent.

Please see more on the Wrightslaw page here - https://www.wrightslaw.com/blog/doe-guidance-on-legal-obligations-for-extracurricular-activities/

[Anonymous]

Going to bat for a boy who keeps forgetting his math homework because he's rushing to get to his EC/safety patrol, seems to be a bit misguided. Would pausing/stopping safety patrol be punishment for his disability, or would it be acknowledgement that it's a responsibility that he is not yet ready for? Would plowing through objections for the sake of his sense of self and sense of engagement in the school be the right thing to do, for him?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a HS Sped Teacher, extra curricular activities are dependent on academic success. If a child is struggling academically because they cannot handle the commitment of their activity (sports is the most common one we see in HS), they need to stop the activity until their grades improve. IEPs don’t cover football.

In fact, IEPs can cover football or any other extra-curricular offered by the school system. See the DOE guidance.


And, even organizations like the NCAA acknowledge that some disabilities (like ADHD and others) are “education impacting disabilities” and specifically state that,” If you have a documented EID, you must meet the same initial-eligibility standards as other students but may be provided certain accommodations to help meet those standards. ”

https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2014/11/25/education-impacting-disabilities.aspx

Kids can get both accommodations to meet eligibility standards to participate, and accommodations during the extra-curricular. It’s a highly fact-dependent, individualized analysis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Going to bat for a boy who keeps forgetting his math homework because he's rushing to get to his EC/safety patrol, seems to be a bit misguided. Would pausing/stopping safety patrol be punishment for his disability, or would it be acknowledgement that it's a responsibility that he is not yet ready for? Would plowing through objections for the sake of his sense of self and sense of engagement in the school be the right thing to do, for him?

Yes, but the underlying reason he is forgetting something while he’s rushing to safety patrol is because of his ADHD. Plenty of other NT kids are probs rushing to safety patrol and yet don’t forget their homework.

It is a part of the stigma and discrimination against people with ADHD that they are called out for their failures due to their disability which are mischaracterized as lack of motivation, irresponsibility, laziness, immaturity, sense of entitlement or using a disability excuse to get what they otherwise couldn’t get or a sense that an accommodation is “unfair” to other students.

In the same way, parents of ADHD kids are often called out as being bad parents and making excuses for their kids, protecting them from necessary consequences or punishments and in that way stunting their growth, being helicopter parents, or believing Larlo is a special snowflake, etc.

I see a lot of that going on in this thread

[Anonymous]

I think you need to talk to the teacher with him and outline the problem and ask the teacher what would help, since the teacher is right there. Surely there is another kid in his class who has the same folder and can be his buddy to put the folder in the right place. Surely the teacher can remind the whole class to make sure their folders are in the right place. She can put a card taped to his desk that says to put the math folder in his bag now.

It’s going to get harder as he gets older with multiple classes and I think you may need to consider meds.

[Anonymous]

The cubby is an easy place to put the folder and the backpack is harder, so I would do something to make the cubby more of a challenge—e.g. a paper weight or buckle that he has to move/undo. If the backpack is easier, he’ll use it even when in a rush. I have adhd and this is what helps me when I’m in a rush—I need to make the desired result also the fastest/easiest path to build a new habit.

I also have a “bucket backpack” with a top open and magnetic closure—I don’t have to unzip and re-zip. This sounds bananas for an adult, but I’m a successful attorney who manages adhd with these types of little fixes. Get him a backpack with a top opening and no zippers and he’ll be more likely to put things in it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The cubby is an easy place to put the folder and the backpack is harder, so I would do something to make the cubby more of a challenge—e.g. a paper weight or buckle that he has to move/undo. If the backpack is easier, he’ll use it even when in a rush. I have adhd and this is what helps me when I’m in a rush—I need to make the desired result also the fastest/easiest path to build a new habit.

I also have a “bucket backpack” with a top open and magnetic closure—I don’t have to unzip and re-zip. This sounds bananas for an adult, but I’m a successful attorney who manages adhd with these types of little fixes. Get him a backpack with a top opening and no zippers and he’ll be more likely to put things in it.

This is BRILLIANT and I wish I’d thought of it sooner!

[Anonymous]

He needs to drop safety patrol. It doesn't matter that he is sweet with younger kids who of course don't care if he has his homework.

Safety patrol is creating too much pressure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS is in 5th grade. ADHD-combined type. Mostly going well (not yet medicated), but he is in compacted math so it’s in a different classroom than his home room.

About 50% of the time, he forgets his math folder/homework at school. After he returns from math to home room, he puts folder in cubby above backpack. He rushes bc classmates are already moving on from math. Then at end of day, he rushes to pack up and forgets to put folder into backpack. He rushes then bc he doesn’t want to be late for safety patrol duties.

Any ideas for 504 accommodations that could help? Or anything else? He doesn’t notice the visual reminders we have tried, and I am just not sure how else to help.

Have you tried a laminated card attached by a short string to the zipper of his backpack? He can't close the backpack without grabbing/seeking the cord.

His math teacher should be ending early enough to allow kids to return to homeroom and pack up with other kids. Homeroom teacher should also be ending class early enough for kids to have time packing up - 5 mins before the bell rings.

Also, why is he putting the folder in the cubby above the backpack? It should go directly in the backpack. I, a grown ADHD adult, operate by the bag rule - there's a purse (or work bag or school bag). Anything you want to take goes directly in the bag. After years of losing keys, I learned this - car keys can only be in one of two places - in my purse or in the ignition. No pockets, counters, tables, whatever. I even have one of those telephone curly cords from inside my purse to the key ring so that I can't leave the keys in the door (cuz they are technically still attached to my purse.

My ADHD kids also use the bag method. Backpack is in the same place every night at home. Everything that is school related lives in the bag and when you are done with it you have to put it bag in the bag immediately.

I’m not OP, but these are fabulous! Thanks!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think you need to talk to the teacher with him and outline the problem and ask the teacher what would help, since the teacher is right there. Surely there is another kid in his class who has the same folder and can be his buddy to put the folder in the right place. Surely the teacher can remind the whole class to make sure their folders are in the right place. She can put a card taped to his desk that says to put the math folder in his bag now.

It’s going to get harder as he gets older with multiple classes and I think you may need to consider meds.

Why is it the responsibility of the teacher or another kid?