Students Disability Services in College

If your child had a documented disability in high school and benefitted from an Independent Education Plan or IEP in K-12 he may be eligible for accommodations through the college’s Disability Services office. Once a child starts college however, he has a much greater responsibility for his own education including self-identifying as having a disability and presenting the required documentation to the college’s disability services office in a timely manner. Even students who’ve had IEPs from age 6 will need to provide current documentation of the disability and the need for academic adjustments because the college environment and academics are quite different from K-12.

Public school districts are required to provide a “free appropriate public education” to students with disabilities. Colleges however, are required to provide “appropriate academic adjustments as necessary to ensure that it does not discriminate on the basis of disability.” An excellent site for basic information about disabled students’ rights and responsibilities is: http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/transition.html