504 Plans: When Schools Push Back

I am currently fighting my school district for a 504 plan. they have been throwing ideas at this and behavioral charts for 2 yrs but never making a formal 504 plan. they have Para's check in with my son for 5mins or less thru out day. but on days that all of the paras are out of the building my son has major issues and they blame him. when again if this was addressed in a plan such as having back up plan for when the supports arent avaiable or having a set para to help him. i feel like they are trying to make it seem like they are addressing issues but arent held to any plan that they must provide for my son as school. I am at the point of formally asking for 504 pla…

Have a third grade student that is refusing to go to school and the district is not helping that much. The child has an IEP for a learning disability (she has Dyslexia) and also has Anxiety. The struggles with learning are leading to extreme anxiety. School said she "doesn't need school-based counseling." 🙄 Advocating for the parents this week and this is our position: The focus of our position is that Student’s current educational setting is no longer appropriate due to the increasing emotional and behavioral challenges she is experiencing as a result of her anxiety, combined with her diagnosed learning disability (Dyslexia). These factors are preventing her from a…

My son will be going into the third grade next school year. He will also be rezoned to a different school. He has ADHD and Sensory Processing Disorder which with the two mimics autism at times. Our state starts standardized testing in third grade which puts a lot of stress on students already. My son doesn't do well with change. So much so that he struggles appropriate clothes based on weather. (Such as if it's hot out he will want to have long-sleeved shirts and pants on and typically will go the whole day in a hoodie) He has fallen behind this year and is already concerned about the "BIG" test next year. I'm extremely worried that with already falling behind, stress of …

Thank you for taking my question. My school (either admin or the ESE department) has adopted a policy in which every 504 student gets one extra day on all assignments, regardless of disability, strengths and weaknesses, course, etc. In my novice attempt to learn about 504 plans, it seems that they all should be customized to fit the needs of that particular student, and that a boilerplate accommodation for everyone doesn't actually meet anyone's needs. This has caused problems with teachers because the extra day often doesn't make sense given the context of the assignment. Now we have the ESE department telling teachers that we are breaking the law if we don't …

Question: What's the most creative or unusual accommodation you've successfully included in your child's IEP? How has it helped them?

My child has a service dog who attends school when me and my husband are available to serve as her handler. We had a meeting and approved a basic sample letter letting the families know that she would be attending. The next day, the counselor and principal sent out a letter to the entire grade stating that "As part of his 504 plan, *my childs's name* will be accompanied by a trained service dog..." It also included my child's full name and that the SD "provides *my child's name* with increased independence, confidence, and emotional support..." We did not approve my child's full name (they asked) and definitely would not have approved sharing about my child's 504 if…

Is pre-determination only a thing with IEPs or does it also apply to 504s?

School is asking that the educational impact of a disability be quantified in terms of minutes (ex can’t focus for 15 minutes after episode). Two questions -is this a reasonable ask to quantify with specifics ? -what is the “rule “ or “standard” that needs to be applied when proving educational impact?

If a kindergarten student is on a 504 plan with diagnosis of Autism, ADHD, & Anxiety and has troubles getting herself clean after a bowl movement, is the school required (hands on) to help her wipe? The school informed us the nurse can coach her but not physical help her. Is this true? Is there a law or some kind of documentation I can provide the school? This is in the state of MO. Thank you so much for your help.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one student in a like ability peer group that has a specific academic accommodation, but the accommodation is being applied to the entire group (chunking). It doesn’t bother me that the entire group gets a weekly assignment as part of chunking, but teacher says only the student with the 504 is the one who often comes unprepared not having completed the work before the group meets. My gut say the chunking for the student with the 504 should then be different than the general education experience, but school is disagreeing because they say they are chunking (they could give monthly to do or longer check points)

School acknowledged they didn’t follow the 504 when administering a pretest which then caused the child to sit through instruction that was not appropriate (child should have received alternate higher level work when mastery was demonstrated). School asked me what they could do, but I’m drawing a blank. The next unit is already in progress and enough time has been wasted so I don’t want the higher level packet to be given after the fact (it likely wasn’t that meaningful anyway). Is there anything appropriate the District should be doing as a result of not following the 504 that could make up for having to sit though a week’s worth of instruction not at my child’s level?

Hi, new here. A little about my kid who this is concerning. We recently moved from Oklahoma to Kansas. In Oklahoma he had a IEP for emotional disturbance. Diagnosis are PTSD, DMDD, ADHD, and manic depression. When we relocated states they said that he did not qualify for a iep and gave him a 504 plan. This year my son had been suspended 3 times. Totaling over 10 days. So we had a manifestation hearing. They agreed that it was definitely related to his DMDD but they do not recognize that because it is a secondary diagnosis. It needed to be related to the ADHD For them to agree that it was a manifestation of his disability. Is this true…

I returned a 504 draft from checking the informal conference box and noting this in text, "I agree to the above accommodations, but believe they are not wholly inclusive of her necessary accommodations and those currently being provided to her during the school day." School is still calling it a draft, saying I didn't agree because i didn't check the I agree to proceed box, but I literally wrote 'I agree to the above" and signed the document. Is the document still a draft and can't be implemented and shared with the team until I check the I agree box?

I just came from a school meeting on another topic where the teacher informed me the 504 plan is expired because I did not sign it in May 2023 revision. I did not sign it because it was a crappy unilaterally driven plan from the principal which stripped away any remotely helpful accommodation and rephrased everything to have either a 9-year-old ask for the accommodation herself, or for it to only be administered if it was convenient for the teacher. It is not the initial 504 plan it was just an update, because IEP was being terminated, so the 504 and GIEP pieces needed to be split out into their own separate documents.

I am trying to work out some kinks with my son's program this year. He is an eighth grader, with a 504 plan (ADHD). His science teacher has kept him after school 3 times this fall to complete unfinished labs. BACKGROUND: My problem is that this teacher does not seem to care about accommodating student needs. It is his second year with her (small school, so there is only one science teacher for the junior high school) and ended last year with my son experiencing such anxiety on science days that he was experiencing headaches and stomach aches on science days. She also played a big part in my daughter, with autism, becoming so overwhelmed without the accommodations in …

School is trying to mandate a specific type of fidget/soothing object that may not necessarily be a preferential object for my child. (Main issue is teacher had allowed the entire class to play with putty and then some children were making popping noises with it so she put a universal ban on it including all children who had 504s and were allowed fidget objects.) I provided a formal recommendation letter of need for putty specifically as requested and still school is coming back with changing to a different fidget. Can school force an arbitrary fidget on a child or does the fidget have to provide benefit to the child?

I am advocating for a Family, English is not their home language. Dad does not want an interpreter at the IEP meeting. he doesn’t feel he needs it, his social anxiety is too high to allow him to use one in front of 10 adults he doesn’t know, and the district only scheduled one hour for the IEP meeting—he knows this is not enough time for him to use an interpreter We told the district he doesn’t want an interpreter, but they are making the choice for him— they insist they will have one there. When I go to the federal Department of Ed website, it looks like schools have to offer an interpreter and if a parent declines, they have to offer a form to sign declining…

Our student is about to turn 15. She does not want to participate in an IEP meeting with a bunch of grownups from her school/she doesn’t know. the facilitator from the school district told her she has to. What are the rules about student participation?

I think I remember reading somewhere that a school can still provide accommodations even if a 504 plan has not been put in place. Is that correct? The request has been made and diagnosis and suggested accommodations supplied from a licensed provider , but just waiting on the school to move forward with the meeting.

My daughter has Anxiety, Adhd, and auditory processing and is entering high school. They gave us a 504 but it's not very specific. Does anyone have a 504 for these things for a highschooler they would be willing to share? Thank you kindly. Marie

I know there is specific language in PA Dept of Ed ch16 regarding gifted ed that says the below. Is there something similar for 504s? I didn't see anything in chapter 15 that says the district can only offer accommodations that are convenient for them to do so as opposed to providing/agreeing to accommodations "which are needed to afford the student equal opportunity to participate in and obtain the benefits of the school program and extracurricular activities without discrimination and to the maximum extent appropriate to the student’s abilities (ch15 PDE)". (e) Gifted educational placement may not be based on one or more of the following: (1) Lack of ava…

I tried searching the Facebook archive, but couldn’t get the right text string without a ton of not the right results. In creating a 504 (or even IEP), if school says they see no impact (child is gifted and receives a good bit of enrichment so on level work isn’t challenging and those grades are just fine) and school also sees no evidence of the disability (because the kid masks and then explodes at home), is there anything specifically in section 504 that says a school must provide accommodations to minimize the triggering activities within the school building?

I emailed school to co firm PSSA accommodations as per 504 plan. This is what I got. I haven’t signed the speech IEP annual (not initial placement) and child is currently under another evaluation for different needs unrelated to articulation. 504 has been in place for several years and was unilaterally changed by District back in August, but still has other accommodations included beyond the quiet environment. So my question is does a non signed non initial IEP which contains the 504 accommodations become completely null?? ———- Unfortunately you have been unable to provide a date and time, at the District's request, to attend a meeting in order to address updatin…

My son has ADHD Inattentive type. He is a smart kid and enjoys school. Or problem is homework. He will do the homework but he forgets to turn it in. He is failing ELA because of so many missing assignments. I have tried everything I can think of on my end to try to get him on a routine of turning in his work. The teacher does not ask for the assignments. Instead each student puts their homework in a bin at the front of the class every morning. My son gets easily distracted in the mornings and forgets to take his assignments to the front. The teacher is aware of the issue but doesn't seem to want to change the way she manages her class. Our doctor has suggested that we get…

Are there any rules surrounding teachers allowing extended time? Does the test/quiz need to be a certain length of time? My child started with 150% extended time in middle school due to her Anxiety diagnosis. She is in HS now. We finished neuropsych testing last spring and due to her severe anxiety and ADHD double time was recommended (whenever there was a timed element to her test the score would drop 30-40%) and approved . I have 2 questions My daughter had a quiz and after 15 minutes the teacher grabbed her paper. When I reached out to the teacher she said that 15 minute quizzes do not qualify for extended time. I couldn't find anything that supports that statem…