Middle school extended time 504 accommodation and Canvas Due Dates/Deadlines

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In DC's class since 99% of the students these days have a 504 plan they just bake the extra time into the assignments for everyone.

I recognize that you are exaggerating, but this resonates with me. I teach one inclusion class. In that class, 1/3 of students have an IEP or 504, 1/3 have an EML plan, and of the remaining 1/3, most:
should have a diagnosis, but are uncoded
Or their parents refused their ESOL placement, but they can’t pass WIDA
Or, they came to us from other school systems where they were in remedial classes which MCPS doesn’t do.

I have to give everyone extended time. I don’t advertise it, but it’s turned in when it’s turned in and I don’t do the late penalty.

I get that this is our new normal. I remember reading that recent article in NYT that stated in UMC areas 504s were up 300% in the last decade. Most kids I know with these are completely legit, but I know of a few neighbors who really make me wonder. I get that they may not want to do homework, but to their parent, that's a learning disability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who do modified assignments and/or reduced workload, can you give any more specifics about how the 504 is worded or how those accommodations work in practice? Our psychiatrist recommended reduced workload but I can’t figure out how it would actually work. One of the hardest classes from a workload perspective is also one where my DS needs the extra practice (foreign language, that no one we know speaks).

He really struggles to get anything done IN class because everything is just so distracting, including his own thoughts. Just listening to the lesson is hard enough. The tricks he uses at home to get through an assignment are not really practical in a classroom (pacing, bouncing, while someone else types for him, etc.).

So, it would mean things like not taking a foreign language, much less a hard one that no one you know speaks in middle school. That's not a 504 accommodation, it's just scheduling for the kid in front of you and not some college fantasy. My kid with a 504 is taking one less academic class this year, he's taking advantage of the requirement that they don't have to take four years of World Language, science and social studies, and will probably do that all 4 years of high school. He's also taking on level math, and not honors.

I don't know what the PP means about modified assignments. You can't get modifications in a 504, and the circumstances when you get them with an IEP for a diploma track kid are very limited.

-- The parent/special educator who first commented on this not being a great accommodation.

Thanks for the unhelpful and unnecessary judgment. 🙄 He picked the language without any input from us - completed the registration before we even saw it. I had my doubts but do you tell your kid you don’t think they‘re good enough? And then go against his own wishes and make a special request to change his registration to something else? He’s actually doing fine on tests, just struggling to keep up with the daily classwork. At least this way he won’t have to take any language in high school. (He is in advanced math, because he would be even more bored and distracted in regular math, and while he’ll never be a straight A student, the math teacher told us directly just a couple days ago that he’s doing great.)

Most of my student´s HS assignments have a normal and extended time deadline preassigned. The extended time is generally not time and a half like a test, but one or two extra days for a week long assignment. Many of the comments in this thread resonate with me. In MS in particular I felt many times that whenever my child mentioned 504, bias seeped out on the edges. Foreign language teachers have universally been the worst in dealing with 504 plan accommodations. Many of our teachers have been native speakers, and I think their educational systems did not acknowledge disabilities.

[Anonymous]

At what point in a marking period would teachers need to stop assigning new work to the class as a whole in order to give students with extended time enough days to finish before grades needed to be in?

DD is in HS. Most of her classes use projects as the main form of summative assessment. Students usually have 2-3 weeks to complete a project. DD has extended time, but we wouldn’t expect her to have 4.5 weeks to finish a 3 week unit project.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In DC's class since 99% of the students these days have a 504 plan they just bake the extra time into the assignments for everyone.

I recognize that you are exaggerating, but this resonates with me. I teach one inclusion class. In that class, 1/3 of students have an IEP or 504, 1/3 have an EML plan, and of the remaining 1/3, most:
should have a diagnosis, but are uncoded
Or their parents refused their ESOL placement, but they can’t pass WIDA
Or, they came to us from other school systems where they were in remedial classes which MCPS doesn’t do.

I have to give everyone extended time. I don’t advertise it, but it’s turned in when it’s turned in and I don’t do the late penalty.

You are very ignorant about how percentages and 504 plans work.

I get that this is our new normal. I remember reading that recent article in NYT that stated in UMC areas 504s were up 300% in the last decade. Most kids I know with these are completely legit, but I know of a few neighbors who really make me wonder. I get that they may not want to do homework, but to their parent, that's a learning disability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter has 1.5x. The teachers enter her due date separately from other students in Canvas. So what she sees is what she gets. It’s nice to not have the guesswork of wondering when her extended time runs out.

That's really wonderful. I argued til I was blue in the face for this, for my son. They refused to give him extra time on assignments, just tests. Flat out refused. He has slow processing speed. They just think he's lazy. I really hate MCPS sometimes.

Get teacher on record denying 504 accommodations in an email. Then forward to principal and ask principal to address issue with teacher otherwise school is out of compliance and you will pursue due process options. If principal is non-responsive, forward to associate superintendent for special Ed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter has 1.5x. The teachers enter her due date separately from other students in Canvas. So what she sees is what she gets. It’s nice to not have the guesswork of wondering when her extended time runs out.

That's really wonderful. I argued til I was blue in the face for this, for my son. They refused to give him extra time on assignments, just tests. Flat out refused. He has slow processing speed. They just think he's lazy. I really hate MCPS sometimes.

Get teacher on record denying 504 accommodations in an email. Then forward to principal and ask principal to address issue with teacher otherwise school is out of compliance and you will pursue due process options. If principal is non-responsive, forward to associate superintendent for special Ed.

First, make sure that the 504 says extra time for assessments and tests. Not just tests.

[Anonymous]

Just get rid of 504 plans, force every teacher to give every accommodation to every student, and if they don’t, whip ‘em. If every single family in MCPS could afford a $7,000 battery of assessments, then every single kid would be diagnosed with ADHD or anxiety, it’s just not that hard to meet diagnostic criteria. Then if each kid had pushy parents, they’d each have accommodations too. This madness is unending. 504 plans should be for physical disabilities only. If a learning disability is so bad that the kid needs accommodations, he should have an IEP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just get rid of 504 plans, force every teacher to give every accommodation to every student, and if they don’t, whip ‘em. If every single family in MCPS could afford a $7,000 battery of assessments, then every single kid would be diagnosed with ADHD or anxiety, it’s just not that hard to meet diagnostic criteria. Then if each kid had pushy parents, they’d each have accommodations too. This madness is unending. 504 plans should be for physical disabilities only. If a learning disability is so bad that the kid needs accommodations, he should have an IEP.

OMG. Be thankful you don't have a child with ADHD or a learning disability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just get rid of 504 plans, force every teacher to give every accommodation to every student, and if they don’t, whip ‘em. If every single family in MCPS could afford a $7,000 battery of assessments, then every single kid would be diagnosed with ADHD or anxiety, it’s just not that hard to meet diagnostic criteria. Then if each kid had pushy parents, they’d each have accommodations too. This madness is unending. 504 plans should be for physical disabilities only. If a learning disability is so bad that the kid needs accommodations, he should have an IEP.

You know extended time is not the only accommodation, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just get rid of 504 plans, force every teacher to give every accommodation to every student, and if they don’t, whip ‘em. If every single family in MCPS could afford a $7,000 battery of assessments, then every single kid would be diagnosed with ADHD or anxiety, it’s just not that hard to meet diagnostic criteria. Then if each kid had pushy parents, they’d each have accommodations too. This madness is unending. 504 plans should be for physical disabilities only. If a learning disability is so bad that the kid needs accommodations, he should have an IEP. [/quote

Exactly this is why there's been a 300% increase in upper middle class neighborhoods over the past decade in 504s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just get rid of 504 plans, force every teacher to give every accommodation to every student, and if they don’t, whip ‘em. If every single family in MCPS could afford a $7,000 battery of assessments, then every single kid would be diagnosed with ADHD or anxiety, it’s just not that hard to meet diagnostic criteria. Then if each kid had pushy parents, they’d each have accommodations too. This madness is unending. 504 plans should be for physical disabilities only. If a learning disability is so bad that the kid needs accommodations, he should have an IEP. [/quote

Exactly this is why there's been a 300% increase in upper middle class neighborhoods over the past decade in 504s.

This also strains the system and is why the county has difficulty meeting these obligations. They need to restrict this to children with disabilities.

[Anonymous]

It is very hard as a relatively new teacher to keep up with the variety of accommodations in my large class.
HS classes are often 30+ students.
We need smaller classes otherwise trying to differentiate and dealing with kids who were absent and need extra instruction, and all the special ed paperwork we need to do is difficult to manage. Content planning and grading still take up a bulk of my time

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just get rid of 504 plans, force every teacher to give every accommodation to every student, and if they don’t, whip ‘em. If every single family in MCPS could afford a $7,000 battery of assessments, then every single kid would be diagnosed with ADHD or anxiety, it’s just not that hard to meet diagnostic criteria. Then if each kid had pushy parents, they’d each have accommodations too. This madness is unending. 504 plans should be for physical disabilities only. If a learning disability is so bad that the kid needs accommodations, he should have an IEP.

OMG. Be thankful you don't have a child with ADHD or a learning disability.

Unfortunately for every 1 child with a disability who doesn’t qualify for an IEP but does need 504 accommodations, there are 10 kids with 504 plans who don’t need accommodations but they have savvy parents who are either trying to score a private school education for a public school price, or cheater parents who want extra time on the SATs.

Truly, anyone can meet criteria for ADD or anxiety, but not everyone who meets those criteria needs accommodations in school.