Legal Rights of Children with Epilepsy in School & Child Care

Legal Rights of Children with Epilepsy in School and Child Care
5.3Q:
Are students with epilepsy who are protected by Section 504 automatically
entitled to special education?
A: No. To receive special education under Section 504, a student with epilepsy
would need special education as a reasonable accommodation for his or her
disability. Special education would be the means by which the student would
gain an equal opportunity to participate in education along with peers without
disabilities. Many students with epilepsy do not need special education services;
rather, they may need accommodations such as extra time for tests or additional
time to make up work missed because of seizures or medical appointments. If
students with epilepsy have other disabilities, such as learning disabilities or
attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, in addition to their epilepsy, they may
need special education to address those disabilities or the needs that arise from
the combination of disabilities.
5.4Q:
If a student takes medication that completely controls his or her seizures,
does that preclude his or her eligibility for services under Section 504?
A: It depends. A student may take medication that completely controls his or
epilepsy, but the medication may cause side effects that require the provision of
accommodations to the student. For instance, he or she may need extra time to
complete work because of frequent naps due to sleepiness from the medication.
In such a case, the student may be covered under Section 504. Or, the student
may need medication administered during the course of the school day, and
school staff will be responsible for administering it as an accommodation under
Section 504. See Question 5.5. However, if the student is not impaired in any
way by his or her epilepsy or by the medication he or she takes to control the
epilepsy, the epilepsy would not be considered to substantially impair a major
life activity, and the student may not be protected by Section 504. 41 However, if
the student’s situation were to change, the student might become eligible for
services under Section 504. For instance, if the student began to experience
breakthrough seizures that interfered with his or her ability to complete school
assignments, or if she began a new medication that caused interfering side
effects, or something else were to occur that substantially limited at least one of
his or her major life activities such as learning, the student would come under
the scope of Section 504.
41 However, schools generally do not dispute that a student has a disability within the meaning of Section
504, and only a few cases have ruled that a student is not covered because of mitigating measures used to
control his or her disability.
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