Hello,

Is anyone familiar with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as it relates to a Free Appropriate Public Education for students with chronic medical conditions?

Thank you.

A 504 plan is usually used for students who may not qualify for special education services under an Individualized Education Plan which provides things like resource, speech therapy, OT, and PT, even services for the hearing handicapped. The 504 plan allows the intervention team, which includes the parent, to make accommodations for the student. That may mean a reduced work load (10 math problems instead of 20), oral administration of tests, one - on - one testing, adaptations that may be needed for PE class, seating arrangements in the classroom, and basically anything else that may help the student succeed academically. Once a 504 plan is mapped out, it is in place for the student's entire day and lasts until the team meets again to make ammendments or decides the next course of action for the following school year. More or less, it is like a contract between the school and the student and is to be carried out by all of the student's teachers.

Thank you, Kaybee, for a such a concise summary of Section 504. I have a sinking feeling that when I approach my son's guidance counselor and assistant principal about a 504 Plan, they will try to placate me by telling me that they have been making all reasonable accommodations for my son, who has missed an excessive number of days from school this year and last, due to IBS (primarily) and GERD.

First of all, they have not been doing so; in fact, in the last month or so, my son has been treated in a punitive manner (in my opinion) for having fallen so far behind in his make-up work. They have denied him participation in his one or two extracurricular activities, until he "comes to school every day and on time" and "has made up enough of his work" (no definition provided). What kind of coercion is that to place on a teenage boy who would love to be going to school on a regular basis, so that he doesn't fall behind, receive poorer grades than if he were in school regularly, and bear the wrath of his teachers (and administrators) who have begun to treat him as a deliberate truant?

Secondly, whether or not the school administrators feel that they and my son's teachers have "bent over backwards" for him, they have never mentioned a 504 Plan to us, which I believe they are obliged to do in the case of a student with a physician-documented chronic medical condition.

Thirdly, we just found out last Friday that my son has been "failing" all of his make-up work. He has yet to receive any graded make-up test or quiz from his teachers. If he is indeed "failing", then I believe that his teachers are obligated to advise him (or us) of this fact and offer him extra help and/or suggest that he slow down the pace at which he is making up the missed work. It makes no sense to me that he should be continuing to make up tests/quizzes, if he truly doesn't understand the material that he has already been tested on, and has (allegedly) failed.

My main goals at the moment are to get my son back into the extracurricular activities that he loves so much; and to "suggest" that a 504 Plan be put in place for next year. At a minimum, I would like to see him receive tutoring on an as-needed basis, so that he will actually be taught the material that he is missing when he is not in school. (The administrators are acting as though these alleged failing grades are my son's fault, that he is not "trying hard enough" to study the material, which, let's not forget, he was never taught. But worst of all is the presumption that he "could" be in school more often, if he just "pushed" himself. :mad: )

I'm sorry that this was so long; thank you for letting me vent. Thanks again, too, for your reply to my post.

T

I don't think you're in as tight a spot as you've been led to believe by the school. With a chronic medical condition, the district is obligated to accommodate your son. A 504 plan is one solution but with GERD, the school's speech therapist may be able to develop an IEP for him based on swallowing difficulties, then he'd be in the system and amends could be made that way. At his age, however, you may have already thought about speech therapy. He could also qualify under 'other health impaired' and have an IEP. Regardless, you have rights and with an extensive illness like your son's, you have the right to demand that a 504 plan be in place. A prescription/letter from the dr will back you up, although the prescrip is only an eye opener since it isn't needed for services other than PT or OT. If you don't get satisfaction at the school level, go to the superintendant or the head of the special ed dept. You will get satisfaction. Most admin people don't think parents know their rights and for the life of me, I have no idea why they shy away from a 504 plan but it is fairly common. I just don't think they know much about them.

Now, if I were you and if you haven't already thought of this, I'd request a tutor for the summer at the district's expense. If your son missed a significant amount of school due to a medical condition, they should have provided it already. Demand that he be tested by the school's psychologist to make sure there isn't a learning disability or that he isn't suffering from ADD. Just push it and I know you'll get to where you need to be. Check out the advocacy groups in your area, too. The school's guidance counselor should have the phone numbers you need.

BTW, have they provided you with a list of those 'reasonable accommodations'? They should be accountable for their claim and honor your request to have the accommodations in writing via a 504 plan. Are all of his teachers aware of his needs? If so, that would mean they met about him without your knowleadge. If not, then their 'accommodations' aren't effective enough nor are they consistent among all of his teachers. My feeling is that you should have been offered tutoring for him in the first place and the district may be remiss by not doing so while your son was out. You have some bargaining power and once you start pushing, they'll start listening.

I keep adding to this cause I'm worked up now. FAPE (Free and Appropriate Public Education) is in your corner and as a parent, you have way more rights than you think!

I'm so sorry this got to be so long.

karen

Thank you so very much, Karen, for your additional comments. I do appreciate the time you have spent in providing me with such great advice.

Fortunately, my son doesn't have any swallowing difficulties related to his GERD. He suffers from mild asthma/reactive airway disease, but the GERD does not seem to trigger his asthma/RAD symptoms (seasonal allergies or environmental allergens are the culprits there).

My son doesn't have any learning disabilities or ADD/ADHD. He had been a solid A student until about three years ago, when his conditions led to more and more absences from school. His scores on standardized tests have always placed him in the 93rd-99th percentiles. But as intelligent as he is, he is not so brilliant that he can teach himself high-school level work, particularly at advanced and accelerated levels.

We do have a letter from his doctor on file with the school documenting his chronic medical conditions (IBS, GERD, asthma/RAD and allergies). This letter is required by the school district at the beginning of each year for a student with chronic medical conditions, in order for them to be exempt from the usual attendance policy (limiting absences to 12 days per year). We even presented the school with a letter from his GI doctor in which he stated that he thought it was beneficial to our son's health to continue to participate in the extracurricular activities that are now being denied to him.

I'm afraid that in my last lengthy post, I failed to make something clear: Our son's school has never mentioned Section 504 to us. Less than a week ago, my mom, who lives in another state, had a conversation with a former neighbor, who is the acting principal at the high school in Mom's town. When Mom told the woman about the problems we have been having with our son's school, she asked her if we were aware of a 504 Plan. We were not, and I believe that it was the school's responsibility under Section 504 to have advised us of the law and its provisions.

Thank you for the suggestion about requesting a tutor for our son over the summer. Certainly, as we move ahead with a 504 Plan for the next school year, I intend to ask that he be provided with one on an as-needed basis during peak periods of excessive absences. The last two years of high school are probably the most important academically, at least as they pertain to college admissions. Socially, they are important years, too, with the new freedoms afforded by the dreaded driver's license. I can't have my son spending those years feeling stressed and depressed, because health conditions that are not under his control and an ineffective school administration have conspired to prevent him from performing at what should be his usual advanced level.

Thank you again for your interest and support.

T

In reading your post again, I realize that you were very explanatory and I missed a few things. I have to tell you, I abhor the things going on in our high school. Kids tend to lose their identity and are guilty until proven otherwise. Your son is extremely intelligent and it's unfortunate that the guidance counselor doesn't look at his track record and see how his medical condition affects his academics. The ball is really in your court. With the medical documentation you have and a request for a 504 plan, they have no choice but to comply. In my eyes, the school has to make up for lost time and if your son is failing in anything, it is their obligation to help him catch up and provide him with every opportunity to do so.

You've really hit on the right plan to help him do that. If they do end up claiming that they have been accommodating his condition, then I think they need to prove it. Like you said, whatever they might claim, it isn't working. With excused absences, they really don't have a choice but to help your son.

Good luck! I really think they'll listen to you. It isn't often the district runs into parents that are caring and who know their rights. Heck, I have up to 90 students with IEP's and I can tell you that less than 1/2 of the parents even care enough to attend the meetings. That's the south, tho. Real laid back.

Thank you again, Karen, for your kind support. It's so frustrating when the school's idea of what's best for my son comes into conflict with what I think is best for my son. For instance, this whole business about restricting him from extracurricular activities has me lying awake at night. My son is just so miserable about the "ban" that he is lying awake at night, stumbling in to school (often in abdominal stress) and just sitting in class, more than half-asleep, absorbing little of what is going on. What a waste of a proven intellect. In addition, denying him participation in his e/c's is also depriving him of hands-on experience in what is his current passion--theater arts--never mind the joy that such participation brings him.

To address his psychological difficulties, I have scheduled an appointment for him with a psychologist early next week. Perhaps the psych. will be willing to intercede on my son's behalf with the school about the extracurriculars. If not, at least, I hope, he will be able to help my son find constructive ways to deal with his anger and bitterness, as well as how to learn to cope with living with a chronic medical condition.

In the meantime, I just found out yesterday that my son tested positive for an HLA allele associated strongly with celiac disease. Unfortunately, he cannot go on a gluten-free diet (the "cure" for CD) until additional testing is performed--so as not to skew the results.

Celiac itself can cause emotional disturbances, such as depression and irritability. Perhaps armed with this new info, I can make some headway with the school next week.

I don't know whether you are an administrator or an educator, but God bless you for choosing such a noble profession and making a difference in young lives. (Despite the problems we have been having with my son's teachers and administrators, I have complete respect for those who enter the education field. There is no greater calling, in my opinion, than a desire to help children.)

Thank you again for your continued interest.

T

Hi,
I'm currently a senior in high school. Your story about dealing with your son's school sounds very similair to mine. I suffer from chronic migraines. I was diagnosed with them about 4-5 years ago. Every year during high school, I have been placed in the same situation as your son. Missing tons of school, having hte work piled on, teachers too busy to review the material that I had missed with me, failing grades, bla bla bla. Although I was never placed on a 504 plan, I was placed on homebound schooling after attending 2-3 months of school at the beginning of every year (I just missed too much school to keep up). Basically I recieve 1-2 hours of instruction a week per class at my home from teachers. It was the school nurse who recommended this, and my pediatrician agreed that it would be benificial to me. Basically I was able to start my whole year over on a clean slate and get taught the material needed. Of course, I was being taught at an advanced pace, my freshman year I completed my whole year in 3 months of homebound instruction. Although many doctors who my parents have mentioned the homebound situation to have had there reservations because of the "social aspect" of high school, not realizing that in many instances the social aspect is horrible when a teenager suffers from a chronic debilitating condition. I have always been active outside of school with participating in a bowling league, going to regional bowling tournaments, volunteering. I personally did not like being homebound with teachers coming to the house because I would ask alot of questions and some of them wouldn't know the answer. So my junior and senior year, the school district payed for me to take online classes and have them transfer onto my transcript. Last year I took some high school courses through the University of Missouri (which I don't recommend) and 2 college dual credit courses through University of Kansas continuing education (these were great academically but had a big time lag between assignments). This year, I am doing a mix of online classes and homebound instruction. I have homebound instruction for 2 AP classes, and I'm taking the rest of my classes through Keystone High School. I really recommend Keystone if you think you may want to go this route. They are an accredited high school in PA who offers online classes. They have teachers for the classes if you have questions about a particular assignment, also a post board for all the students to talk to eachother online.

If you would rather not take this route and are ademate about a 504 plan, I would suggest that you have an educational advocate attend your next meeting with the school. They are a free resource, basically they know all of the laws and are on the parents side to basically make sure they don't get screwed by the school.

Although the schools are supposed to tell you about 504 plans, it is my experience that they don't. This year, I lasted in school until March, but I had pretty missed almost every day of school since the middle-end of January. I had 2 sinus infections during that time (which is a huge migraine trigger for me and I was under tons of stress (another trigger) because of family issues. When my mom and the school had the meeting my teachers pretty much refused to be cooperative and recommended that I not graduate and start the year over next year. That was not acceptable. One teacher even said that if my parents were going to try to go out of district for homebound for that particular class that we wouldn't be able to find a teacher because she is the only one in the county to teach that course, needless to say, another school across town had a teacher that teaches that course and he agreed to teach me. My mom pretty much threatened to sue the school if they didn't accomodate me because I have a medical condition that is keeping me from attending school. She also wrote a letter to the superintendant telling him what happened and the threat to sue if I was not accomodated, and he agreed. Especially since the principal was on my side knowing that I'm a hard worker with a 3.9 GPA and I wasn't just going to screw around. Luckily, throughout this whole thing, my mom is the occupational therapist for our school district so she knows about the special ed and IEPs and all that other stuff.

I have to warn you though about the 504 plans, sometimes colleges look down upon them, which is why my mom never really wanted me to have one. Partly because alot of the time, there is a reduced course load with 504 plans, and colleges like seeing kids taking the hardest courses that they can (AP courses). This will have to be a risk that you will need to weigh. However, if you do opt to have a 504 plan make sure you get written copies of it, and when it's time to narrow down colleges, ask for an interview with a college admissions counselor in the fall of your son's senior year and give them a copy of your son's 504 plan and explain why he needed it, just be totally upfront about your son's medical condition. Also with colleges, I would recommend that you all look at small liberal arts colleges because of the class size, because teachers will be more open to tutoring or accomodating your son if his medical problems persist. I looked at a few large universities, and was pretty much told that I'd be on my own. But when we talked to the smaller private liberal arts colleges the teachers were like oh if I notice that you're not in class, I'll email you the notes and come to your dorm to explain them or set you up with a senior who is majoring in the area to help you out, bla bla bla. So that's just something to think about down the road.

I hope this helped some, sorry about the rambling.

Hi, Froggy,

Wow! Thanks for taking the time to write about your own experiences as a student who has gone through a situation similar to my son's. You hit the nail on the head about so many aspects of educating a student with a chronic medical condition.

My son's h.s. has flat-out refused to consider home instruction for him, preferring that he be in school for social reasons and in order to participate in class discussions, which I do realize can add so much to the learning process. What's ironic about that, of course, is 1) they have taken away a huge part of his social interaction with his peers in "banning" him from his theater and improv extracurricular activities; and 2) since he's absent so much, anyway, he is not in class to benefit from group-oriented discussions, and in the meantime, he is left to fend for himself, without any help at all.

I don't understand why it has to be "all or nothing". Why can't the school offer a tutor for my son when he needs to get caught up in a particular subject(s), if they don't want him on home instruction? Unfortunately, I think the only way we can get one for him would be to go with a 504 Plan. I definitely understand the points you raised about the potential negative aspects of a 504 Plan, which is why we haven't officially decided to go that route yet. I will raise the topic with the psychologist whom my son is seeing tomorrow.

Thanks for the online classes suggestion. It had not occurred to me, and it could prove invaluable down the line.

It sounds as if you have made the best out of an intolerable situation. I hope that you are beginning to find a combination of meds and other therapies to alleviate your migraines. I suffer from occasional migraines, and I know that new advances in migraine prevention/treatment are being made all the time.

Good luck to you, sweetie, and thanks again for such a great response. :)

Hugs,
Pat

Hi again,
If you ask me, the whole socialization thing is total bs! I understand that experiential learning is great for students who are able to attend school daily, but it provides nothing for students who are consistently absent except confusion and frustration. It's like, have you ever walked into a room filled with people and you have no idea what they are talking about, but wish you knew? That feeling that you get is what I got every day when I walked into a class that I was behind in. I know many people feel that even though you're behind you should still listen in, but they don't take into account that it's almost like they are isolating the student. My psychologist, principal, some docs, never understood that it can actually be harmful in a way to put kids in that situation until I put it that way. No one likes the feeling of being left out, especially when it's not in your control, so why put the kid through that day in and day out? Like I said, it's that constant feeling of having no idea what's going on.

Maybe you should ask the school why they are so ademant on not providing your student with tutors, and make sure to take notes! Maybe you should contact the special education department at your son's school and talk to them about your son's situation. I definately recommend an educational advocate! You need to get as many people on your side as possible. Maybe you should go over everyone's heads and have a meeting with the superintendant of your son's school district and let him or her know what's going on because I'm sure that person has no idea.

Does your son do anything social outside of school? Sports? Clubs? Whatever?

Are there any colleges near you? Even a community college? Last year, my mom hired a physics major from a local college to help tutor me in physics so I could stay caught up before I went homebound, he came a few hours a week for $10 an hour. Basically helped me go through the process of working out the problems and explained any concepts that I didn't understand. That may be an option for you to consider.

If you are interested in looking at the curriculum or whatever about the online high school located in PA, the URL is keystonehighschool.com Schools like Duke, Dartmouth, Yale, Stanford have accepted credit from Keystone so it is reputable, and you can enroll in them any time you want. They offer honors level courses in the sciences. Also, Apex offers AP courses if that interests you, since your son sounds smart, but they have a strict schedule of when they start and when assignments are due and everything. Their URL is apexlearning.com

Maybe to help your son, you could have your doctor write a note saying that your son needs teacher's classnotes for the week when your son is absent. This could allow him to do some work if possible while at home. Another option is seeing if the teacher will allow class discussions to be taped. If you don't already, if your son is absent for 2 days in a row, call into the school and ask for work for those days and the rest of the week so that way he could at least have the chance to look at what was discussed and what he has to do. Also, my pediatrician wrote a script saying that I need 5 days beyond the school's makeup period to be able to complete my work. I think it's typically 2 days for every day absent, so if I was out for 3 days, I have 6 days plus 5 to make up my work. Just a rule of thumb, if your doctor writes a note about SPECIFIC accomodations your school is more likely to follow them. Just make sure you have copies of the doctors note, so if they don't follow them, you have documentation.

Hope this helped

Hi, again,

Thanks for sharing some more terrific ideas! I'm going to be incorporating most of your suggestions when I meet with my son's guidance counselor and other administrators to discuss "plans" for next year. Even if we don't go ahead with a 504 Plan per se, I don't see why most of your ideas can't be implemented.

My son used to play roller hockey in a rec league year-round, until he became too sick to do so after Christmas and his attendance at the games became sporadic. He is a goalie, so it wasn't fair to the team for him to miss so many games. I'm hopeful that he will be able to resume participating in hockey again this summer.

He also has a part-time job. At the moment, it is just on Saturdays, but he should be able to increase his hours over the summer. He'll be getting his learner's permit soon and wants to start saving money for a car.

I hope you're feeling well. My migraines always flare up during season changes, especially March/April and November/December, perhaps because of the increased precipitation during those months in the Northeast.

Hugs,
Pat

Have you had your meeting with your son's school yet? How'd everything go?

Belated thanks for your most recent post.

I haven't had a Section 504 meeting with my son's school administrators yet because I have been so busy advocating for him re his extracurriculars ban; and also because my husband is worried about "how it will look to colleges". My feeling is that poor grades in an otherwise very bright student will not "look" too good to college admissions offices, either, and at least a 504 will offer some sort of explanation for his grades. We still have to hash that out.

Good news (sort of) on the extracurriculars front: His principal decided to let him participate in his e/c activities again, on a slightly reduced basis. Unfortunately, he spent the whole time I was on the phone with him defending his original decision and even suggesting that it (the ban) might have to be reinstated/extended into next year. I have contacted an education law center in my state and received some positive feedback from them. I want to follow up on them with respect to both the e/c ban (looking ahead to next year and the principal's comment about that) and the pros/cons of a 504.

I hope you are feeling well and will have an enjoyable summer. :)

Thank you again for your interest.

Pat