Office for Civil Rights
- When conducting the disability evaluation, your school district cannot consider the positive effects of mitigating measures in determining if a student has a disability. For example, if your daughter uses medication to address ADHD, the school district cannot consider the positive effects of that medication as a basis to determine she does not have a disability.
A Student May Be Entitled to Individualized Services to Meet His or Her Needs
- All elementary and secondary school students who are individuals with disabilities as defined by Section 504 are entitled to a free appropriate public education (FAPE). Under Section 504, FAPE is the provision of regular or special education and related aids and services designed to meet a student’s educational needs as adequately as the needs of students without disabilities are met.
- School districts often set forth these needed services in a document, typically referred to as a “Section 504 Plan.”
- The school district cannot limit FAPE to those aids or services that are free or low-cost, and cannot exclude needed aids and services just because of their expense.
- Not every student with ADHD needs the same set of services, or any services at all. School districts cannot simply provide the same aids and services to all students with ADHD. Each student’s needs may be different, and Section 504 requires school districts to provide for those individual educational needs.
- The special education or related aids and services that are included in a student’s Section 504 Plan, or similar document, should be clear and detailed so that you and the school both understand what the plan requires, and can make sure it is implemented consistently.
Your School District Must Provide You with Due Process Under Section 504
- The school district must allow you to appeal district actions regarding the identification, evaluation, or educational placement of a student with a disability. This obligation is more commonly known as “due process.”
- The school district must tell you about this due process system, notify you of any evaluation or placement actions, allow you to examine the student’s records, provide you an impartial hearing, allow you to have a lawyer at that hearing, and provide you a review procedure.
Resources
To learn more about a school district’s Section 504 obligation to provide FAPE to students with ADHD, please see OCR’s July 2016 Dear Colleague Letter and Resource Guide, at http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201607-504-adhd.pdf, and visit OCR’s website, at www.ed.gov/ocr.
If you want to learn more about your rights, or if you believe that your school is violating Federal law, you may contact the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, at (800) 421-3481, (800) 877-8339 (TDD), or ocr@ed.gov. You may also file a complaint online at www.ed.gov/ocr/complaintintro.html.
