Introduction
Once students receive their college acceptances and choose the school they’ll attend, they will submit their information and deposit to enroll for the next term. As soon as they complete that process, it’s a great time for students with disabilities to register with the disability services (DS) office.
Why it’s important to register before classes start
Doing this as soon as they enroll can offer several advantages. It means that:
- students will still have access to the staff at their high school, so if they find they need any paperwork, they should be able to get it more quickly than if they wait until the summer (risking that offices will be closed or the person they need won’t be back until school reopens);
- registering now will allow students who haven’t already done so to talk to their case manager about how to explain their need for each accommodation they’ll request;
- students are much more likely to have their requests reviewed and – if approved – in place before they arrive on campus;
- on the chance that they might need to get more documentation or appeal the denial of a request (something that won’t happen for most students), they’ll still have time to take care of this before DS offices are swamped with requests from other students.
They should be able to find instructions and any forms online. (Sometimes they’ll be instructed to register by following a link to the school’s learning management or accommodation system.)
Students may need convincing
Research shows that many students who received accommodations in college don’t request them at college. Get some talking points you can use to convince them to do so (based on what the research says are the reasons students don’t register). You can also share this page that speaks directly to them about why they should do so.
What they’ll need to register
Family members and professionals may have heard that if students’ learning disabilities testing is more than three years old, they’ll have to be re-tested for college. This is not true everywhere (many colleges show some flexibility), so students should make sure to check the documentation requirements for the school they’ll attend in the fall. To see how to find the documentation requirements for learning disabilities or any type of disabilities, read this post or watch this video.
There is a small chance that students with ADHD may find they don’t have the documentation their college requires.
Students may have been told that all they need to do is walk into DS with their IEP or 504 plan, and the college will simply approve them for whatever accommodations are written in there because they have to honor them. Some students may receive the same accommodations in college that they had in high school, but this is only because their college found the accommodations appropriate to meet their needs, not because they’re following the high school’s plan (those plans aren’t valid at college).
Students have choices (and take responsibility for them)
Of course, students don’t have to register for accommodations at all. They just have to remember that if they decide to register later in the semester (or at any later point in their education), accommodations aren’t retroactive – they’ll have no chance to retake exams or courses with their accommodations, and any grades earned before they registered will remain on their record. (This is why I recommend registering right away.)
