Reply to School revokes extra time accommodation from 504 plan

Forum Index » Kids With Special Needs and Disabilities

Reply to "School revokes extra time accommodation from 504 plan"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]504 is a civil rights law- grades can be one factor but should not be as heavily considered as with an IEP. Have your son write a paragraph about why he needs this accommodation for math and which features of his disability neccesititate it.  Prep him and have him be prepared to respond to counter arguments. You can ask to have another 504 meeting where he personally advocates for this to be added. Or you can go above the school and reach out to the district 504 coordinator with your request and possibly file for 504 mediation. Also know that school staff can be retaliatory though, whether you like it or not, so weigh how much  waves you want to make. Ask me how I know.[/quote]

Huh? IDEA is also a civil rights law. That is not relevant point. For 504 you have to show an accommodation is needed due to a disability and the accommodation has to be reasonable. There is a very good argument that extra time for a kid doing advanced math without needing the extra time so far, is unreasonable. But if anyone wants to understand how Stanford has 40% of students with “disabilities,” well ….[/quote]

A student must show a need for special education instruction to get an IEP-typically low to failing grades provide a strong indicator . For a 504 plan, the student needs accommodations to access the curriculum to level the playing field with their general education peers. A dear colleague letter from the department of education expressed that students with 504 plans who have hidden disabilities such as learning disabilities should be able to access accommodations to fully demonstrate their abilities. If a high IQ kid has a disability, without appropriate accommodations, they may not be able to fully demonstrate their abilities.  In theory, they should have 504 protections but schools often refuse to serve these students. Their high IQ masks the extent of their disability. [/quote]

Thus how we get 40% of Stanford students with accommodations lol.

I don’t think “fully demonstrate abilities” is the standard for this and I don’t think it is reasonable to give kids who are academically advanced without extra time, extra time. [/quote]

Your opinion is your opinion and not actually what the law says.

A disabled Einstein is still eligible for accommodation if his disability is adversely impacting his education (IEP standard) or if his disability "substantially limits a major life activity" (of which "learning" is mentioned in the statute, which states that the list in statute is "non-exclusive"). 
[/quote]

Nope. “adversely impacting” is not the IEP standard. It is “needs special education to access the curriculum.”

For a 504 even if you can show a disability the accommodation has to 1) be related to the disability and 2) be reasonable.

Extra time for a kid already succeeding in a class that is 3 grades ahead just doesn’t pass the smell test. Sorry. [/quote]

FFS, I wish people knew the criteria for an IEP. Eligibility for an IEP is determined by federal law under the IDEA:

“ § 300.8 Child with a disability.
(a) General—(1) Child with a disability means a child evaluated in accordance with §§ 300.304 through 300.311 as having an intellectual disability, a hearing impairment (including deafness), a speech or language impairment, a visual impairment (including blindness), a serious emotional disturbance (referred to in this part as “emotional disturbance”), an orthopedic impairment, autism, traumatic brain injury, an other health impairment, a specific learning disability, deaf-blindness, or multiple disabilities, and who, by reason thereof, needs special education and related services.”

This definition creates a three prong test for IEP eligibility:

1. Identified disorder

2. Which has an adverse impact on education (comes from the “by reason thereof” language)

3. And needs special education and related services

A kid 3 grades ahead in math may not need special education or they may need special education in a particular narrow area.  An above grade level kid who has ADHD and gets Bs in class solely due to his inability to turn in assignments may actually qualify for “special instruction” in how to track, manage and turn in work and because of the IEP is then eligible for a special study hall to receive this instruction. There’s an entire program at N Bethesda MS that gives 2E kids with IEPs access to advance classes while providing appropriate special instruction.

OFC, all accommodations must be “reasonable,” but “reasonable” is a term that refers to whether the requested accommodation is feasible and allows a person with disabilities to enjoy equal opportunity. It becomes unreasonable that it causes an “undue hardship“ on the employer or organization. In the context of school “equal opportunity” does not just refer to on grade level classes. If a school system offers advanced classes, grade skipping, magnet programs, etc. to non-disabled students, then those opportunities must be open to disabled students who are otherwise qualified. How fast a student can complete work does not determine whether or not they have access to advanced opportunities. If a student has a high IQ or demonstrates that they can complete advanced work with extra time, then they absolutely must be accommodated to advanced classes.

“Reasonable” does not mean what PP seems to think it means – that reasonability is some kind of test of whether you think the accommodation is “unfair“ to other students. Accommodations are not measured with reference to how they impact neurotypical students. Legally, they must be decided on an individualized basis when considering the students “unmitigated“ state, i.e. their performance without consideration of medication or therapy or other factors that can help their performance (because those mitigating factors aren’t always constant). If a student has a disability which has an adverse impact on education or substantially limits a major life activity, then they’re gonna qualify for accommodations. Extra time is always a “reasonable accommodation“, because it is something that the school can administer without any “undue hardship” and it’s ubiquitous because it actually addresses a lot of different kinds of disabilities. And while, it might seem like disability accommodation should be rare, when you consider that all kinds of physical and mental disorders can adversely impact education – depression, anxiety, OCD, bipolar, several different kinds of specific learning disabilities, concussions, language, processing disorders, traumatic brain injury, spatial or visual processing issues, and a plethora of chronic physical illnesses – it should be no surprise that a few percent in each of these categories adds up to a significant number of students getting accommodation at school.[/quote]

Tl;dr. At the point when 40% of kids in elite schools have accomodations it is obvious that something has gone wrong. OP’s kid is an object lesson. [/quote]

Tl;dr.... meaning I'll just repeat my argument without engaging with the counterargument.... which means my argument is weak AF. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics