• What is Section 504?
• What is the Section 504 process?
• What are the Major Life Activities?
• What are the Physical and Mental Impairments listed under Section 504?
• What is the difference between Section 504 and Special Education?
• What are the regulations regarding TAKS and Section 504?
• What is substantial limitation?
• What is the Americans with Disabilities Act?

What is Section 504?

The purpose of the Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act is to prohibit discrimination and to assure that students who are disabled, (a physical or mental impairment), have educational opportunities and benefits equal to those provided to non-disabled students.

[ Back to Top ]

What is the Section 504 process?

• Parents or staff may refer any student for consideration to the Section 504 Coordinator at their local campus.
• The Campus LST or IMPACT Team must review all referrals.
• All students with a physical or mental impairment must have documented evidence by a credible source (such as a Physician) except for the educational diagnosis of some learning impairments, Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and ADHD.
• Parents must sign a consent and return the consent to the Section 504 Coordinator at their campus in order to have their child evaluated.
• A Section 504 committee must review the data (from all relevant sources), to ensure that there is an agreed upon educational need.
• Once the committee agrees that the student does have an impairment and the impairment substantially limits that child in one or more major life activities; then the committee creates an Individual Accommodation Plan that is shared with Teachers and staff for use in the general education classroom.
• All students who are receiving Section 504 Accommodations are re-evaluated every three years, and students who are Dyslexic must have their Accommodations reviewed annually.

[ Back to Top ]

What are the Major Life Activities?

Walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, caring for one’s self, performing manual tasks, and working.

[ Back to Top ]

What are the Physical and Mental Impairments listed under Section 504?

• Any physiological disorder or condition, cosmetic disfigurement, or anatomical loss affecting one or more of the following body systems: neurological; musculoskeletal; special sense organs; respiratory; including speech organs; cardiovascular; reproductive; digestive; genito-urinary; hermic and lymphatic; skin; and endrocrine; or
• any mental or psychological disorder, such as mental retardation, organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness, and specific learning disabilities

[ Back to Top ]

What is the difference between Section 504 and Special Education?

See chart

[ Back to Top ]

What are the regulations regarding TAKS and Section 504?

Section 504 eligibility does not provide for exemption from group testing. Accommodations regularly provided to a student can be used if allowed by the specific group test.

[ Back to Top ]

What is substantial limitation?

"Substantial limitation" can be taken from the Americans with Disabilities Act. Under that law, a major life activity is substantially limited when a person is “Unable to perform a major life activity that the average person in the general population can perform ;”
"While parents may honestly believe that a child is not performing to his or her potential, that failure is not sufficient reason for referral and evaluation. "*1.

[ Back to Top ]

What is the Americans with Disabilities Act?

The ADA was passed in 1990, and seems to pick up where the Rehabilitation Act left off. Borrowing from the §504 definition of disabled person, and using the familiar three-pronged approach to eligibility (has a physical or mental impairment, a record of an impairment, or is regarded as having an impairment), the ADA applied those standards to most private sector businesses, and sought to eliminate barriers to disabled access in buildings, transportation, and communication. To a large degree, the passage of the ADA supplants the employment provisions of §504,**2.

[ Back to Top ]

Footnotes:
*1.An Overview of §504 © 2001 RICHARDS LINDSAY & MARTÍN, L.L.P. All Rights Reserved. Fall 2003 Page 15 of 15
**2.An Overview of §504 © 2001 RICHARDS LINDSAY & MARTÍN, L.L.P. All Rights Reserved. Fall 2003 Page 15 of 15