Legal Rights of Children with Epilepsy in School & Child Care

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Legal Rights of Children with Epilepsy in School and Child Care At its heart, Section 504 requires that services for people with and without disabilities be comparable and that people with disabilities have equal access to services available to people without disabilities. Services, benefits and aids must be equally effective, but they do not have to produce identical results for people with and without disabilities; Section 504 is designed to ensure that people with disabilities have equal access to equally effective services, and that they are not discriminated against in their enjoyment of those services. 2.22Q: Does Section 504 require placement of students in the least restrictive environment? A: Yes. Section 504 requires that students with disabilities be educated with students without disabilities to the maximum extent appropriate to the needs of the person with disabilities. A student with disabilities must be placed in the regular education environment unless the school system demonstrates that the education of the student cannot be achieved satisfactorily with the use of supplementary aids and services. Additionally, students with disabilities are to participate in nonacademic and extracurricular services and activities with students without disabilities to the maximum extent appropriate to the needs of the student with disabilities. 34 C.F.R. 104.34. 2.23Q: Does Section 504 have requirements about evaluation and placement? A: Yes. A school system must evaluate a student believed to have a disability before initially placing the student in regular or special education and before making any significant change in placement. The evaluation requirements are similar to those in the IDEA. 34 C.F.R. 104.35. Although the placement requirements are not as detailed as those in the IDEA, the placement decision must be made by a group of people knowledgeable about the child, the meaning of the evaluation data, and the placement options (including the requirement that students be placed with students without disabilities to the maximum extent appropriate). 34 C.F.R. 104.35. 2.24Q: Does Section 504 have requirements about physical accessibility of buildings? A: Yes. Section 504 requires that a recipient of federal funds make its program or activity “readily accessible” to people with disabilities, but does not require that every existing facility or every part of the facility of the program be accessible to and usable by people with disabilities. 34 C.F.R. 103.22(a). A program can achieve accessibility by many means, including but not limited to redesigning equipment, reassigning classes to another floor or building, assigning an aide to a student, delivering services at an alternate site, altering the existing facility, or building a new facility. 34 C.F.R. 103.22 (b). 23
What Laws Apply to Children with Epilepsy? 2.25Q: Does Section 504 apply to students with disabilities beyond the age of 21? A: Yes. Section 504 applies to postsecondary education programs and activities, including postsecondary vocational programs and activities. The regulations cover admissions and recruitment, academic and nonacademic programs, housing, and financial and employment assistance. Such programs and activities cannot discriminate against qualified people with disabilities by using tests or admission criteria that have a disproportionately adverse effect on people with disabilities except in certain circumstances, and cannot limit the number or proportion of people with disabilities who may apply to the program. Additionally the program may not ask a person before admission if he or she has a disability, but after admission may ask the person if he or she has disabilities that may require accommodation. 34 C.F.R. 104.42. Section 504 requires postsecondary programs and activities to make accommodations to avoid discrimination. These accommodations can include academic adjustments such as permitting course substitutions or additional time to meet degree requirements. Additionally, a program may not adopt rules, such as prohibitions against recorders in classrooms or guide dogs in buildings, that would limit the participation of students with disabilities. The program must also ensure that students with impaired sensory, manual or speaking skills have access to necessary auxiliary aids such as interpreters, readers, recorded texts, or special classroom equipment so that material will be accessible. 34 C.F.R. 104.44. 2.26Q: What happens if a school district or other recipient of federal funding violates Section 504? A: The person who has been discriminated against or, if the person is a child, the child’s parent or representative, can file a complaint with the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights. See Chapter 8 for additional information. 2.27Q: What is the Americans with Disabilities Act? 14 A: The ADA is a civil rights statute that prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability by state and local governments, and by public accommodations, such as businesses, that serve the general public. The ADA basically extended the protections of Section 504, which only applies to federally funded and federally conducted programs and activities, to other government agencies and private entities that serve the public. Programs that are subject to the ADA must provide 14 Because the majority of students with epilepsy are educated in public schools, this manual focuses primarily on the IDEA and Section 504. For students in the public school setting, the ADA’s substantive protections are co-extensive with those offered by Section 504; therefore, this manual will discuss the ADA only briefly. 24
Page 1 and 2: AN ADVOCATE’S MANUAL AN ADVOCATE
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Page 17 and 18: ABOUT THE AUTHOR Leslie Seid Margol
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Legal Rights of Children with Epile
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CHAPTER SIX Special Education and S
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Special Education and Students with
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APPENDIX A: CHILD CARE SEIZURE DISO
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Activity Restrictions _____________
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The following form is to be complet
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8301 Professional Place, Landover,
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Myoclonic seizures: Seizures in whi
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(Student’s name) needs assistance
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7. FIELD TRIPS AND EXTRACURRICULAR
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APPENDIX C: SCHOOL SEIZURE ACTION P
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Seizure Observation Record Student
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SAMPLE COMMUNICATION FORM FOR STUDE
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SAMPLE COMMUNICATION FORM FOR STUDE
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APPENDIX E: SELECTED STATE LAWS ON
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Selected State Laws on School Medic
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