Documents: the 504 Plan

In the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Public Law No. 93-112), Section 504 states that: "no otherwise qualified individual with a disability...shall solely by reason of his/her disability be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination to any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance..." (emphasis added).

At the moment, every public school system in America receives some degree of federal funding. Because of this, they are all subject to this law. What that means for you is this: if your child has a disability, the school system must accommodate that disability in some way - under Section 504 if no other way is available. Probably that will mean the development of a formal plan for defining and providing those accommodations.

A 504 Plan is civil rights document. It protects your child's rights regarding access to education. Often the disability is a medical problem like asthma, childhood diabetes, or allergies.

Sometimes the problem is more complicated and the school system and parents must decide whether the child needs a 504 Plan under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 or an IEP under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The difference between the two, in theory, is simple. Technically, a 504 Plan provides accommodations for the disability. Accommodations are environmental in nature. Changes are made to the learning environment:

The curriculum itself does not change. An IEP, on the other hand, is for students whose disabilities require specially designed instruction. The curriculum itself must be modified in order for the student to receive an appropriate education.

Do you need a 504 Plan? A 504 Plan formalizes a set of accommodations that the school may be quite willing to make informally. For example, if your child has asthma and you bring the school some kind of a medical statement to document the fact, the school may be quiet willing to:

But having the formal document in place can be reassuring for everyone involved. And sometimes the exact accommodations to be used aren't as obvious as in the case above. In those cases, the formal plan helps people remember what to do.

There are some basic steps involved in obtaining a 504 Plan. The first is referral. A teacher, support staff, a parent, or a medical professional may refer the student for consideration, usually by calling the school and speaking to the principal or the chair of a school team that considers such matters.

The next step is a meeting to discuss the referral; perhaps a 504 Plan will emerge from that meeting, or perhaps more than one meeting will be required as the team involved gathers information. The last step is to review the effectiveness of the 504 Plan at some later date.

A 504 Plan can be an effective tool for safeguarding your child's right to an appropriate education.

The copyright of the article Documents: the 504 Plan in Special Needs Education is owned by Greg Cruey. Permission to republish Documents: the 504 Plan in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Oct 7, 2009 7:16 PM

Guest :

Overused....why are parents doing this to their children. Why do they not expect them to rise to the occasion rather than making continuous "accommodations" for them? Most of the 504 plans I see are totally unnecessary!

Oct 22, 2009 4:31 AM

Guest :

It becomes nessaccary when you have a child that has AD/HD and while he is a gift learner, we are sometime not blessed when we have a teacher that does NOT understand how to treat an AD/HD child to where he will not shut down, my son's teacher thinks she can controll him by yelling at him all the time. This is the first time we have encounter this problem where he is rebellion and shutting down because the teacher does not know how to "talk to my son" therefore it is fustrating him to a point he doesn;t want to go to school. 504 plan does indeed help the situation and I am in the process of acheveing that for him. He doesn't deserve to be punished for shutting down like the teacher is doing. She gives him detentions all because he can not handle her constant yelling and giving him numerious directions all at once. So don't knock something until you have worn that shoe yourself. This has been very stressful and we need programs such as this to help protect our kids. Thank you

Oct 22, 2009 9:19 AM

Guest :

Response to the user who wrote the message below:
It's very obvious in reading your comment that you do not have a child with a disability or that you're not a hands on parent of a child with a disability. You need to educate yourself before posting comments.

Oct 22, 2009 9:19 AM

Guest :

Oct 28, 2009 2:56 PM

Guest :

Obviously you don't have a child with a disability. If the team who decides a 504 plan is necessary and writes it agrees that it is necessary, who are you to decide that it isn't? Obviously they cannot "rise to the occasion" without accomodations, or parents/teachers would not go through the trouble of using one!

Oct 29, 2009 9:10 PM

Guest :

If you want your ADHD child to be mainstreamed into a regular education class, then you need to understand that a teacher has other students in his/her class and not just that ADHD child. As a parent you live with this ADHD child, but try having him/her along with 25+ other students. For as many accommodations you may want your child to have and can be overwhelming even for the best teachers. Having a 504 plan for whatever your reasons are as a parent are great, but the parent should not expect miracles to happen.

Nov 4, 2009 12:13 PM

Guest :

I am a parent of a child with special needs. In some instances we as parents should have higher expectations; because the real world our children must live in does not always allow for accommodations. The 504 or IEP are useful tools, however without proper advocacy from parents these documents can become useless words on several pages.

Nov 4, 2009 1:13 PM

Guest :

Unfortunately, comments such as the "overused" comment posted here feed into the tendency of the schools to not want to provide a 504 plan. It's one thing to expect children to rise to the occasion, which parents should do. It's another thing not to give them the necessary accommodations that will enable them to do just that.