I
have not had the experience of developing 504
Plans. Generally, this is not something that is drawn up by the school psychologist...or so I'm told. I have a general idea what they are and their purpose, but
very little understanding of the 'process behind the document'. For
IEPs there is a very extensive process, which is legally defined for
us by state and federal law. We have guidelines for each step and
explicit expectations to meet. Schools (well, most
schools, there are
definitely exceptions to this out there) don't have a problem with
meeting the needs of students who are eligible for Special Education
Supports. (Now, is this solely because IEPs are backed by government
funding? I don't know. I'm certain that has a
lot to do with it, but
we'll get to that later.)
The
school I work in now does an amazing job at providing supports for
students in need. When I refer to students in need, I'm not just
talking students with an IEP. I'm also talking about students in the
tier two intervention process (ours intervention team is referred to
as the Student Intervention Team (SIT), but everyone has their own
special term for them.) These are teams that consist of several
school staff professionals gathering to problem solve ways to help
students who are struggling, but not struggling to a significant
degree.
When considering my own education teams and the excellent support resources our school provides for all students I have to ask myself...what is the point of a 504 Plan? I've asked this of some colleagues as well who work in school that actually do 504 plans. The typical answer is "They are mandated by law." But what good is a law if it's not enforced? I don't see anyone checking into schools to see why there are no 504 plans done. If fact even the "auditing" done through special education might be considered kind of a joke. I mean, all they do is check the paperwork (at least from what I've seen so far in my experience). So essentially schools can do as much or as little as they want for kids as long as the paperwork says all the right things, is up to date, has signatures, and parents aren't making a fuss about any of it. But I digress... Another reason I've heard is that some schools will use 504 plans to decrease their special education ratio. In some cases it does seem appropriate to do a 504 Plan. Let me give you a scenario. You have a student whose expense and liability is great due to the severity of their disability. Their disability doesn't impact their ability to learn or put them significantly behind their peers academically. However, their disability forces the need for ramps to be put in, a staff member trained to work with the medical conditions the student has to deal with on a daily basis such as toileting, and maybe the school has to put in new doors too. These necessary supports will likely be very costly. The student generally gets by throughout the day without the need for an intense amount of help. There are times when they may have some kind of emergency situation that needs tended to and they might need help with toileting. So the student has a disability, but they don't show a need for intensive support services beyond what be provided through general education. This would be one case where a 504 Plan might be more appropriate. Another situation would be if you have a student with a vision or hearing disability, but the disability itself does not significantly impact their ability to learn. Or perhaps you have a student with a vision disorder that makes some activities difficult to do such as transfer information from the board to paper or see things on a computer screen. Academically they do fine and with a little bit of intervention could probably do a little better. The parents are also wanting a document such as an IEP or 504 Plan that can follow them after high school. Seems reasonable since the disability is one the child will have to deal with for the rest of their life. Technically, both of these situations warrant 504 Plans, but when the school psych mentions that dirty dirty word administrators about have a stroke.
When considering my own education teams and the excellent support resources our school provides for all students I have to ask myself...what is the point of a 504 Plan? I've asked this of some colleagues as well who work in school that actually do 504 plans. The typical answer is "They are mandated by law." But what good is a law if it's not enforced? I don't see anyone checking into schools to see why there are no 504 plans done. If fact even the "auditing" done through special education might be considered kind of a joke. I mean, all they do is check the paperwork (at least from what I've seen so far in my experience). So essentially schools can do as much or as little as they want for kids as long as the paperwork says all the right things, is up to date, has signatures, and parents aren't making a fuss about any of it. But I digress... Another reason I've heard is that some schools will use 504 plans to decrease their special education ratio. In some cases it does seem appropriate to do a 504 Plan. Let me give you a scenario. You have a student whose expense and liability is great due to the severity of their disability. Their disability doesn't impact their ability to learn or put them significantly behind their peers academically. However, their disability forces the need for ramps to be put in, a staff member trained to work with the medical conditions the student has to deal with on a daily basis such as toileting, and maybe the school has to put in new doors too. These necessary supports will likely be very costly. The student generally gets by throughout the day without the need for an intense amount of help. There are times when they may have some kind of emergency situation that needs tended to and they might need help with toileting. So the student has a disability, but they don't show a need for intensive support services beyond what be provided through general education. This would be one case where a 504 Plan might be more appropriate. Another situation would be if you have a student with a vision or hearing disability, but the disability itself does not significantly impact their ability to learn. Or perhaps you have a student with a vision disorder that makes some activities difficult to do such as transfer information from the board to paper or see things on a computer screen. Academically they do fine and with a little bit of intervention could probably do a little better. The parents are also wanting a document such as an IEP or 504 Plan that can follow them after high school. Seems reasonable since the disability is one the child will have to deal with for the rest of their life. Technically, both of these situations warrant 504 Plans, but when the school psych mentions that dirty dirty word administrators about have a stroke.
There are good reasons for administration to be fearful of 504 Plans though. Now that I've done the research I completely understand why it freaks them out! It's not just that there's no federally funded monies that the school can access to support them (i.e. purchasing specialized curriculum/supplies, etc, which contrasts from special education since the school is allotted financial aid to help fund supplies needed for identified students). I used to think this was the only reason. I wasn't entirely wrong, but there's much more to it than I realized before. 504 plans can also be super scary because if your school were to be audited by the government to check on the fidelity and implementation of your plans and they had not been updated (similar to an IEP), and/or were not being followed to the extent of the plan that was devised, the government can essentially remove ALL of your school's funding (i.e. any state aided funds for ANY/ALL programs that are being supported within your school system...not just special education funds)! This would be a HUGE loss to the school system and community! Parental litigation is also a concern – it's not like IEPs/MDTs aren't prone to legal litigation – it's the concern that if the parent has a legitimate argument and the school is found "guilty" of not providing the identified services, the school is vulnerable to more "loss" than the average special education legal case. This makes principals and superintendents uncomfortable (to say the least) and rightly so!
So, what's the right thing to do? Personally, I feel that we should do whatever we can that is in the best interest of the child. Then again when the government gets involved it can get quite sticky. So, I'm not sure I can say with any conviction (yet) what I think the right thing to do is. I'm still working on that. In the meantime, I hope to find minimal reasons to have 504 Plans drawn up. They seem great and may have been initially developed with good intentions, but seem to be more trouble than they're worth. If you have the staff to support them and ensure that they are followed through and managed then go for it, but if you don't you might just be asking for trouble.
