504 Compliance: Everything You Need to Know

Section 504 ensures that no one is prevented from learning course content, even if that requires specific accommodations.

Who Qualifies for a 504 Plan?

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, there were 7 million students who received special education services in 2017-2018. It's estimated that roughly 14% of public school students use special education services.

A student qualifies for a 504 plan if they are impaired in a way that affects them walking, breathing, sleeping, or eating. It may limit communication, vision, hearing, speaking, concentration, learning, and thinking. They may also be eligible if they cannot stand, work, or bend to pick something up.

Understanding 504 Compliance

Accommodations depend on the student and their individual needs. They should be evaluated regularly to assess current needs and documented in appropriate student paperwork. For example, a student who is blind may need someone to read their test out to them so they can answer. Someone with vision or hearing problems may sit at the front of the class to help ensure they understand.

If you have students who may qualify for accommodations, watch for the following issues:

• Difficulty starting a task
• Lack of sustained attention
• Impulsivity
• Poor memory
• Forgets or misses homework assignments
• May be aggressive or oppositional
• Hyperactivity
• Sensitivity to criticism
• Reduced self-esteem
• Lack of academic skills
• Poor organizational skills
• Poor study skills
• Lack of planning skills

Any of the above potential problems could indicate a student needs additional adjustments to help them learn on the same level as their peers.

Essentially, students are assessed to determine their unique needs to allow them to compete on the same playing field as their peers and are not intended to provide an advantage to a student. This process can be helpful in learning but also reduces the feeling of being left out for the student. They can end up with more self-confidence.

Areas of 504 compliance that schools should be aware of include:

Classroom Environment

The environment and even seating arrangements in a classroom will have an impact on students. Accommodations include offering small group instruction and reducing the number of distractions in the classroom.

Assignments and Homework

You may find it useful to adjust the way assignments are done. This could include everything from providing extra time to complete the assignment to reducing the number of assignments required of the student.

Classroom Test Taking/Grading

Classroom testing can be particularly problematic, and you may provide one or more accommodations, such as allowing open-book exams, permitting notes or outlines during the test, or removing test time limits. State assessments permit many accommodations, but not all of the accommodations used in classroom instruction or classroom testing. Eligibility requirements must be met for each accommodation to be used during state assessments.

Communication

Communication between parents, teachers, and other essential members of the community is important. You may provide a checklist of progress, increase parent/teacher meetings, and consult with other professionals involved as needed.

Transportation

Some students may require extra aid on the school bus, and this can often be provided without singling the student out too much. Options include having an adult on the bus or assigning a seat buddy for a student who is in need of help.

Medication

Some students require medication, and this should never be a reason for changes in treatment. However, you can help the student by discreetly reminding them to take their meds and being careful not to cause embarrassment over medication.

Learning Styles

Every student has their own method of learning, and you can provide accommodations to help with this. In reading, you may use highlighting or large print to make it easier to read. Covering part of the text is also helpful. For math, the use of a calculator may be helpful, while graph paper can be useful, too.

When it comes to spelling, using a spellchecker can be helpful. Some teachers prefer to simply skip the spelling. For handwriting, you may opt to accept alternatives to handwritten work.

Offering other options for learning can also help, such as providing audible cues and clues, working on visual contact, using manipulatives when teaching, or providing written outlines of the lesson.

Self Esteem

Boost students' self-esteem by offering opportunities to showcase their skills or abilities. You can also give them praise and positive notes and compliment their efforts.

Aides or Technology

Some students may require some adjustments to their learning by using tech or a helper. Providing a tutor or a computer to take notes in class can be helpful.

Socialization and Social Skills

To aid students with difficulties in socialization, you may assign lunch companions, provide social skill training in small groups, or provide cooperative learning games. Providing discreet prompts for social responses may also be helpful.

504 vs. IEP

The two types of accommodations that are afforded to students are the 504 plan and the IEP. These are similar, yet different.

An IEP is a plan that allows a child with a diagnosed disability receives the necessary services to help them. They are also provided specialized instruction, which may provide a unique educational setting. The support staff is brought in to help with the monitoring and delivery.

The 504 plan also comes into play for students with a diagnosed reality, but this plan focuses on ensuring academic success. The student receives adjusted education in a regular classroom, with a teacher monitoring things.

While this sounds very similar, the differences are there. Some students have disabilities but don't require special instruction yet still need equal access to public education. This example refers to 504 plans. The IEP student has a disability but also requires specialized instruction.

Both options require annual reviews to ensure that any changing needs are met and that there is a way for them to learn in a regular school. Accommodations should not be provided to students without evidence of effectiveness and need from year to year. As students grow and learning develops, accommodations may or may not be needed.

Education Advanced Can Help

If your school is interested in new ways to improve the learning experience for children, you may also be interested in automating tasks and streamlining processes so that your teachers have more time to teach. Education Advanced offers a suite of tools that may be able to help. For example, four of our most popular and effective tools are:

• Cardonex, our master schedule software, helps schools save time on building master schedules. Many schools used to spend weeks using whiteboards to organize the right students, teachers, and classrooms in the right order so students could graduate on time and get their preferred classes. However, it can now be used to automate this task and, within a couple of days, deliver 90% of students' first-choice classes.
• Evaluation is a solution for documenting every step of the staff evaluation process, including walk-throughs, self-evaluations, supporting evidence, reporting and performance analytics.
• Pathways is a graduation tracking tool that allows administrators and counselors to create, track, and analyze graduation pathways to ensure secondary students are on track to graduate.
• Testhound, our test accommodation software, helps schools coordinate thousands of students across all state and local K-12 school assessments while taking into account dozens of accommodations (reading disabilities, physical disabilities, translations, etc.) for students.

If you're ready to learn more about 504 compliance and ensure it works in your school, contact Education Advanced. We provide plenty of solutions for your special needs students, through our solutions like Embarc and TestHound.