Course selections can influence college choices.
With the amount of pressure that students in some communities experience around college, it may feel like you’d be making things worse by talking about what classes students take as early as when they enter their freshman year of high school. But it is important to do so if the high school is offering to waive its own graduation requirements, as may happen with math and/or foreign language for some students with disabilities.
Colleges don’t have to waive or modify their admission Requirements—even for students with disabilities—but students and their families might not know this, or they might have been misinformed. It’s important that everyone involved in the college search be aware of this fact, especially students, as they should be the ones to decide whether to enroll in a particular class in high school in order to keep their options as open as possible. Let them know, too, that some colleges will accept a certain number of high school language courses to satisfy their own graduation requirements. Given that even the most basic of language courses may be much more challenging at the college level, students may decide it’s worth it to take those classes in high school.
Even though the scheduling period for ninth grade classes seems like a very early time to be asking students about their post-high school plans, it could provide a chance to examine with students the entrance requirements of a handful of colleges, just to give them a sense of what might be required down the road. If they already know of a school that interests them that requires four years of math or foreign language, this information can inform their decision about whether to attempt those classes in high school.
Students shouldn’t be moved from an Individualized Education Program (IEP) to a 504 plan solely because the family thinks that a 504 plan will look better when they apply to college.
This is something I hear parents tell each other. (They hear a lot of misinformation.) You already know that colleges can’t ask students if they have a disability, which means they also can’t ask whether an applicant has an IEP or 504 plan. Make sure families know about this (ideally, when students are in eighth grade) so that students don’t lose access to services or instruction provided through their IEP because someone involved in the decision making was misinformed.
Transcripts won’t reveal a student’s disability (except in a very specific circumstance), so students shouldn’t have all of their supports taken away because of concerns about their chances at college admission.
The conversation about IEPs and 504 plans can be a good chance to address another worry—that the high school transcript will reveal what kind of plan a student has. Let students and families know that transcripts aren’t allowed to indicate a student has a disability unless they take a class with a modified curriculum. (See questions 7 and 8 in this fact sheet from the U.S. Department of Education.)
This includes any mention of a plan (whether an IEP or 504). Of course, if you work at a school that specifically serves students with disabilities, it’s likely that your school profile will reveal this. It’s probably a good idea to let families know this, but also share how many different kinds of schools have accepted previous graduates.
Moving a student from an IEP to a 504 plan simply because colleges are subject to Section 504 is fruitless, as colleges don’t have to follow 504 plans.
Families may have correctly heard that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) doesn’t apply to colleges, meaning students’ IEPs aren’t valid after high school. But they may also have heard the common myth that since Section 504 applies to colleges, colleges have to provide whatever is written into a student’s high school 504 plan.
What most don’t realize is K–12 schools are subject to Subpart D of the law, while colleges are subject to Subpart E. While there’s no explicit statement in the law that says this, what it means is that once students graduate from high school (or age out of the K–12 system), their 504 plans are no longer valid plans that a college (or employer) is required to follow. However, 504 plans may be useful to students as a form of documentation of the fact that they previously received accommodations, but that’s the only purpose they serve. So let families know that moving from an IEP to a 504 doesn’t provide any protection or guarantee that students will receive the accommodations written into it at college.
Students shouldn’t take the SAT/ACT just because they think the alternative of going test-optional reveals that they have a disability.
Provide your best advice about whether it makes sense for students to take a college entrance exam based on the schools that interest them. If you feel it’s truly optional for a student, assure the family that the absence of these scores won’t be a flag that reveals that the student has a disability. There are lots of reasons why students might not take those tests, but students and their families may not realize this.
If students are going to take the SAT/ACT, they should use their accommodations.
College admission test score reports don’t reveal that a student used accommodations, but families may not know that. Make sure they have the facts so that students don’t forego accommodations they need. Also make sure students who choose to test start the process for getting accommodations far in advance, as it can take some time to complete.
Students and their families should consider whether any supports students receive interfere with the development of college readiness skills and whether the student’s current accommodations may be coloring perceptions of their postsecondary preparedness.
While many accommodations are available at the college level, there are some supports and adjustments colleges don’t have to provide. For instance, students don’t typically get specialized help (beyond what their peers can also access) in completing assignments. And those who have a one-on-one aide will find that the college may approve them for such a support person as an accommodation, but colleges don’t identify and pay that person—that falls on the student. Given this, students and their families may want to see how the student can function with less-intensive supports of the kind that are commonly available at college.
Also, students typically have to complete the same assessments as their peers, which means that students likely won’t get to take a different kind of test or have the test modified (e.g., fewer possible answers to choose from on a multiple choice test) or have an alternative assignment (e.g., writing only a five-page report when peers have to write ten, or being allowed to explain what they learned to a teacher instead of writing a paper).
If the high school is providing materials for students prepared by staff or faculty members as an accommodation (such as study guides or copies of teachers’ notes that other students don’t get), make sure families know that this isn’t commonly done as an accommodation at the college level. Ideally, the discussion about these points will commence when students are in eighth grade and the plan for ninth grade is developed.
If college is the student’s goal, then a long-term plan can be made for making sure students get instruction in the skills they’ll need at college, and once they’ve developed them, subsequent plans may phase out certain accommodations. This will give families a clearer picture of how students might function at college where those supports are unlikely to be available.
Students don’t have to limit their college choices to have a chance at accommodations.
You may work with students who have a disability and are also high academic achievers. They may hear a myth that highly selective colleges don’t have to provide accommodations because students capable of getting admitted to these schools can’t have a disability or don’t need accommodations. This isn’t true. The only way a college can be exempt from federal disability laws that require them to provide accommodations is to: a) reject all federal funds (e.g., Pell Grants, research funds), and b) be private, and c) be a religious school. The U.S. Department of Education doesn’t keep a list of exempt schools, but due to the factors above, you can see that nearly every school has to comply with the law, regardless of how many students they turn away every year.
Accommodations approved through DS are free.
Colleges must provide necessary accommodations at no charge. This means that students don’t have to ask DS offices about fees as they’re looking at colleges. Some basic accommodations include extended test time, permission to record lectures, and conversion of class texts and other readings to a format accessible to text-to-speech programs.
Students can look at colleges’ DS sites to see lists of possible accommodations covering academics, housing, dining services, etc. (Learn more about accommodations in Transition of Students With Disabilities To Postsecondary Education: A Guide for High School Educators.) Make sure students know that there are some kinds of supports colleges don’t have to provide, such as specialized tutoring. Students seeking services that go beyond what the DS office has to offer will have to consider colleges that offer them through a fee based, structured program, such as the one offered by the Strategic Alternative Learning Techniques (SALT) Center at the University of Arizona.
Many students don’t need to attend a school that has a fee-based, structured program.
Families may have heard from others who think that any student with a learning disability, ADHD, or autism needs to focus their college search on the few dozen colleges that offer special programs for students with disabilities. But students with disabilities attend thousands of other colleges that don’t provide that kind of support.
These programs can be helpful to students who finish high school and still need to develop some skills necessary to college success. (Again, that’s why scaling back supports before graduation can be helpful in getting a realistic picture of students’ readiness.) They can also be appropriate for students whose disability was identified late in high school, meaning that they didn’t have a chance to learn helpful strategies. Parents may still think it’s a good idea for their student to attend a school that offers such a program. Remind them that if the college isn’t a good fit for the student, they’ll be unhappy, and the supports available will be unlikely to change that.
There’s no best college for students with a particular kind of disability.
Families understandably hope that students can focus their search on one school (or maybe a few) that are particularly good at serving students with, for instance, ADHD. But every student with a disability has different needs, even though some might overlap, so no school could possibly be optimal for all of them. Make sure they know that all colleges provide accommodations and that they do so across settings (e.g., academics, dining, athletic facilities) and for all kinds of disabilities.
Students should research the disability services office and other sources of support while looking at colleges.
Even though colleges are required to provide basic accommodations, there may be variations between different schools in what they commonly approve. For instance, at some colleges, students who need note-taking accommodations might get copies of notes from a peer, but at others, they might instead be given note-taking software they can load to their own computer. Students who want a peer mentor might find that one college offers this through DS, but another offers it through the Office for Undergraduate Affairs. If this matters to the student, they can use this information to narrow their choices. Students shouldn’t be shy about contacting DS offices if they can’t find the information they seek online.
Offices welcome these calls. They can also assure families that they don’t communicate with the admission office about the students who reach out to them, and that the admission office never checks with them to ask for the names of students who have made inquiries. (Parents have expressed this worry to me.)
Students should look at colleges’ graduation requirements.
All students should check the general education requirements of colleges that interest them (and specific majors, if they have one in mind). Doing this can help them narrow the field of school to which they want to apply. Families should be aware that students likely won’t be able to learn whether they can have a course substitution (e.g., for math or foreign language) until after they enroll, register with DS and ask for one. For this reason, students might feel more comfortable focusing their searches on schools where they won’t have to worry about those requirements.
Students shouldn’t assume they have a better or worse chance of admission if they disclose their disability when they apply.
Some of your families may have heard that colleges have to admit a certain quota of students with disabilities and assume it will give their student a boost if they disclose their disability. Make sure they know that this isn’t the case. Also let them know that colleges don’t place caps on the number of students with disabilities they’ll admit, either, so students should be comfortable disclosing their disability if they wish to.
Students shouldn’t include their disability documentation when they apply to college.
The admission office and DS office have no relationship at most colleges. Students may assume that if they reveal their disability in their application packet, the admission office will forward their information on to DS. Even if a college’s admission office does this, though, that wouldn’t qualify as completion of the DS process, where students typically must complete a form and submit documentation.
One exception, however, is for students applying for a fee-based program focused on serving students with disabilities. In those cases, students may be asked to submit documentation with their application.
Before they enroll, students can try to find out what accommodations they might receive.
It would be ideal if students with disabilities could find out what accommodations they’d be approved for at each college that interests them.
Unfortunately, most DS offices don’t have enough staffing to do this for students who are just interested, for those who have applied but not yet been accepted, or even sometimes for those who have been accepted but haven’t yet enrolled. That said, it’s worth asking. If students can get this information, they can use it to help them make their final decision about which college they want to attend.
Once they enroll at a college, they should complete the DS registration process.
Unless students register with DS, they don’t get accommodations. Make sure students know that high school staff hasn’t sent on their paperwork and completed the process for them. They must do it themselves.
They should be able to see what the process is by looking at their college’s DS page. If they can’t locate it, they can call DS to ask. The sooner they enroll, the more likely it will be that their accommodations will be in place when classes start.
There are many ways you can share the facts with your students and their families throughout their time in high school. You may decide to provide a handout with focused information each year or give the full overview all at once. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights offers a helpful post for students outlining their rights at college; you could share this link in an email and/or post it to your office’s site. Whatever you do, providing your students and their families with the facts will do so much to help them make good choices.
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