COLLEGE PLANNING FOR YOUR NEURODIVERGENT TEEN: Advocating For Educational Accommodations Shifts To Your Student (Blog 66)

By Esperanza LaRoche*

Last month we began our series on High School Transitions.  We are starting with transitions from high school to college.  Graduating from high school and moving on to the next chapter is an incredible milestone; and not just for the student, but for the entire family!  Just like preparation and performance got your teen through high school, your teen will need to prepare and perform to succeed in college.

In this blog we address some important tips for parents with neurodivergent teens transitioning to college in the fall.

Shifting Legal Expectations: IDEA vs. ADA

In K-12 education, the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) obligates school districts to provide a free and appropriate education that is tailored to their individual needs. The goal of the IDEA is to provide schoolchildren with disabilities the same opportunity for education as those without a disability.  But when your child graduates from high school and transitions to college, the protections afforded by the IDEA expire, and any legal rights arise from the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).  The ADA requires public and private colleges and universities to provide equal access to postsecondary education for students with disabilities.  This entails providing students with necessary accommodations to participate fully in academic programs and activities.  In order to protect students from discrimination and ensure their rights in educational settings, the ADA (and Sec. 504 of the Rehabilitation Act) requires colleges and universities to eliminate barriers and provide reasonable accommodations to support students with disabilities.

Colleges are required to have offices to help students arrange and manage their accessibility needs.  Here are a few questions you may have:

How does my student arrange for accommodations in college?

Reasonable accommodations. Colleges must provide reasonable accommodations, which means reasonable academic adjustments or auxiliary aids to give your student equal access to the academic material.  So while colleges do not have to modify the curriculum, accommodations in an academic setting can take many forms:

• Extended time on exams (not untimed tests)

• Use of laptops or assistive technology (e.g. text-to-speech, speech-to-text software)

• Use of calculators during exams

• Audio recordings of lectures (sometimes with smart pens)

• Reduced course load (may affect financial aid)

• Priority registration for classes

• Access to notes from classmates or scribes

• Audiobooks, large print, or digital texts

• Preferential seating to reduce distractions

• Alternative exam formats (i.e. multiple choice instead of essay)

What is reasonable for your college will depend on your discussions with college officials and professors. You should be prepared to propose and discuss accommodations with your college’s accessibility services office.  

Self-advocacy. Your student should locate the college’s accessibility services office to self-disclose their disability and discuss their needs in order to make academic material (and physical facilities) accessible to them.  Understand that colleges will not seek out your child; your child will need to advocate for what they need to succeed in their new academic setting.

Privacy laws.  Privacy laws prevent college officials and professors from talking to parents directly.  The Family Educational Rights Privacy Act (FERPA) protects student educational records from disclosure.  This means that professors and campus staff cannot legally give parents updates on grades or attendance without prior permission from the student. A student can choose to sign a FERPA waiver to grant their parents’ permission to access this information and speak with school officials directly.

Be prepared to request accommodations

Document, document, document.  To secure accommodations in college, your student will need to submit proof that the accommodation is needed.  Be prepared with the paperwork to show that your student has a disability that requires the requested supports.  Every university sets its own specific rules outlining how to submit paperwork, why they need it, and exactly how recent documentation needs to be.  Here is what you should prepare to submit:

• Any psychoeducational testing or assessments

• High school individualized educational program or Sec. 504 Plan, if the student has one

Clinical data in any psychoeducational report remains the primary key to unlocking accommodations for your college student.

What questions to ask

When evaluating colleges for a neurodivergent student, be sure to ask:

• Does this school have a dedicated, well-resourced disability services office, or is it one person managing hundreds of students?

• Does the school offer fee-based enhanced support programs?

  • Many colleges now offer structured add-on programs that pair students with executive function coaches who meet with them multiple times per week to manage deadlines, break down long-term projects, and establish independent campus routines.

  • These programs are not free, but for many of our students they are the difference between graduating and not graduating.

• What is the campus culture around neurodiversity?

  • A school where a significant portion of students identify with a learning difference creates a fundamentally different environment than a large research university where your student may feel entirely alone in navigating a disability accommodation.

    
    

Stepping Back So They Can Step Up

It is a heavy and challenging feeling to step back when you have spent eighteen years being your child's primary advocate. But the greatest gift we can give our neurodivergent students during the college planning phase is the space to practice self-advocacy while the stakes are still relatively low.

Let your student reach out to the college’s accessibility services office themselves, with you nearby for support. Let them set up their own accommodation meeting. Let them experience the small discomfort of figuring things out so that when the real challenges hit, they have some muscle memory to draw on.

When the Plan Changes, The Pivot Is Not a Failure

As a personal anecdote, parents should keep this in mind. What happens when you do everything right, the right school, the right accommodations, the right support services, and it still does not work out as planned?

I have lived this. I know what it feels like to watch a carefully built plan change in real time, to see your child struggling in ways no brochure or text prepared you for, and to face the question of what comes next with no clear roadmap in front of you.

Here is what I know from both sides of that experience: the pivot is not a failure. It is information. And what you do with that information is what defines the outcome.

A student might start at a four-year institution and discover that the independent living demands are simply too much that first year away from home. The pivot might be moving to an associate's degree pathway, maybe closer to home, or scaling back to one class per semester while building the independent living skills that campus life exposed as still developing. And even when a student gets within a few classes of finishing and burns out completely, it is still not over.  There are other options that are out there; programs that can help your teen shine and thrive and to reach their academic and personal goal towards independence.

Remember:  The goal should not be one degree on one fixed timeline. The goal for your child should be a more full, independent and meaningful life. There are many paths to that destination, and we can help you navigate the one that fits your child’s unique journey.

Want to talk through college planning for your neurodivergent student?

Check out 2 Black Moms High School Transitions Consulting: Consulting | 2blackmomsandamic

Schedule a free initial 30-minute consultation by mailing lisa@2blackmomsandamic.com. We can't wait to hear from you!

*Esperanza is Consultant with 2 Black Moms High School Transitions Consulting