RIGHTS FOR COLLEGE KIDS DIAGNOSED WITH ADHD

[willandgrace]

Rights for ADHD kids in college

Does anyone know where I can go to know what rights my college student/daughter has regarding accommodations in the classroom? She has an evaluation from a psychologist and a leaning specialist that diagnosis her ADHD. They recently amended the report to suggest extra time during assessments. The Disability Office is pushing back. I'm told she is legally protected under the Disability Act., I'm just not sure how to best advocate for my daughter. Any suggestions? We live in NJ. She goes to college in PA. Thank you!

[willandgrace]

TY! Her evaluation is in review now. I’m worried they will deny the extra time because the pyschologist did not explicitly recommend extra time. She wrote “perhaps Jane can meet with her college counselor to put a 504 in place so that she can receive extra time on assessments”. I’m worried the college will not allow because it was not clearly listed as a recommendation. However I’ve spoken to the psychologist and she apologized to me for not being more clear. She say she will support the accommodations and will amend report etc. I let the college know this. I just have a bad feeling and I’m really gonna be angry if they don’t agree. That’s why I feel I need to know her legal rights. I’m thinking about a lawyer

[willandgrace]

TY! It's comforting to get support!

[lrt1]

I am a college professor (and a parent of a child who is diagnosed with ADHD) and the prior poster is correct. My biggest piece of advice is to make sure she knows that she will have to really take responsibility for her accommodations herself - i.e. she will need to initiate all actions with disability services each year to obtain documentation of her accommodations (they will not reach out to her), she will speak with each of her professors at the beginning of every single term to ensure they have her information from disability services, etc.. . Extra time on exams usually means they will take their exams over in the disability services department (not in the classroom) because the classrooms are booked back to back with classes and it will be her responsibility to contact disability services to set that up each time she has an exam. Really my point is to make sure she understands that she has to control it all. Our disability services department is great and most professors are happy to help (there is always one jerk out there), but the schools purposely want the students advocating for themselves. That said, tell her if she ever runs into an issue on her accommodations with a prof or anyone else to go straight to disability services as they will enforce her rights. Her role is in making her rights clear, they will back her up in event of any issue. Best of luck to her (and you) on this new adventure!

[scrabble2018 in reply to lrt1]

Wow. Great advice. My daughter is just 12. I hope I can remember all this for the future, when she will need these services.

[lrt1 in reply to scrabble2018]

The Disability Services department at whatever college your child attends will definitely walk them through the entire process of what they need to do. At least I can say, ours is fantastic according to my students who need it, I would assume other school's DS are similar given that it is all federal law. The thing you need to remember to do is start early! As soon as your child accepts a school, contact the DS department to get the paperwork going so their accommodations are in place from day 1, as it is not legal for prof's to give accommodations to students without them being fully registered with DS. Best of luck to you!!

[willandgrace in reply to lrt1]

Thank you so very much. I learned a lot from your post. TY!

[Eboll]

My son has as much issue with completing assignments as he does need extra time. Disability services offers more help with exams. We have learned (almost too late) that a good strategy is to explain the late assignment issue with professors ahead of time. They will be more lenient and maybe help stay on track. It snowballs quickly if things are missed. They may go into denial and stop going to class. This is our first semester doing this and it seems better - and better mentally for my son knowing they are there to help. Otherwise we have been getting to the end of the semester and begging to make up missed work. That’s a difficult strategy to execute. Looks like he was lazy and now desperate. Hope this helps.