Students who receive accommodations in high school are sometimes surprised to find that they are eligible to receive accommodations at the college level as well. However, those accommodations and the process to receive them vary so it's important to understand them before leaving high school and heading off to the next level.
Students may receive accommodations through either an Individual Education Plan (IEP) or a 504 plan due to a documented disability the student possesses. Which one of these a student may be eligible for depends on a variety of factors that are too complex to cover here. Nevertheless, they both work to “level the playing field” for a student who has a disability and provide educational supports. These protections stem from federal law that also binds to post-secondary institutions that receive federal funding.
IEP and 504 plans require an annual review. Parents of students who hope to carry their plan into college will want to look out for this annual review in senior year. That last plan will be important to the student.
In general, a grade school will keep track of a student’s accommodations and when they are up for a review. Students should understand their accommodations and there are times when they may need to advocate for themselves regarding those. Their teachers should also be aware of them and partner with the student to implement them.
It’s a little different at the college level though. Colleges don’t automatically receive plans from high schools. Students must self report their plans and accommodations to a college and that is why that last review meeting is so important. Families should be sure to take a copy of their plan away from that meeting and keep it in a safe place.
Once they arrive on a college campus, it will be up to the student to take a copy of the plan to the appropriate place. That place can vary from one institution to the next, but it's generally called the “Office of Students with Disabilities”, or something like that.
That office will review the plan and the needs of the student. What they offer could be different than the accommodations a student was used to receiving in high school. They usually do, actually, and college accommodations are often less robust than high school ones. Students with less severe accommodations might not receive much more than an opportunity for extended time on exams. This could involve the student reporting to the Office of Students with Disabilities (or whatever it's called) for their exams instead of taking them with their classmates. There are scenarios where students may feel put off by these differences. In that case, they may choose not to employ their accommodations which is always an option.