Back to Basics: Section 504

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 is a federal civil rights statute that prohibits recipients of federal funds from discriminating against individuals with disabilities. In addition to an increase in complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), we also are seeing an increase in parent requests for Section 504 hearings. Section 504 hearings require a neutral hearing officer and the presentation of testimony and other evidence. This month we are going back to basics on Section 504 to help schools avoid potentially costly mistakes.

Defining Disability

Section 504 protects students with disabilities from discrimination. A student with a disability is a student who:

• has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities;
• has a record of such an impairment; or
• is regarded as having such an impairment.

A student has a “physical or mental impairment” if the student has any physiological disorder or condition, cosmetic disfigurement, anatomical loss affecting a body system (e.g., diabetes, cancer, heart condition, asthma), or any mental or psychological disorder, including intellectual disability, emotional or mental illness, or specific learning disability. “Major life activities” are those functions that are important to most people’s daily lives, including, but not limited to, caring for oneself, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, learning, concentrating, and working. “Substantially limits” means limited as compared to most people in the general population. It is not meant to be a demanding standard.

Determining whether a student has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity requires an individualized inquiry. A doctor’s note saying that the student has a disability, however, does not immediately make a student eligible under Section 504. Section 504 does not require a medical diagnosis to conclude that a student has a physical or mental impairment. While a 504 team must consider all available information, which may include medical information provided by the parent, the team must independently make the eligibility determination. If a 504 team believes a medical diagnosis is needed to determine eligibility, the school is responsible for obtaining the diagnosis at no cost to the student or the student’s parents.

Child Find and Evaluation

School officials have an affirmative obligation to locate and identify all students who have one or more disabilities and who live within the school’s boundaries. Though parent disclosure is often how school officials learn that a student may have a disability, schools cannot rely on or wait for a parent to inform officials of a disability.

Section 504 requires schools to evaluate students who may need special education or related services because of a disability. Section 504 evaluations are less prescriptive than IDEA evaluations, but they must include information from a variety of sources (e.g., teachers, parents, outside providers, education records, and medical records) and, if needed, rely on validated assessments or evaluation procedures that assess the specific areas of educational need. Some disability determinations will be easily made without conducting any formal assessments and others may require tools such as behavior rating scales or cognitive assessments.

504 Plans

A 504 Plan is an individualized document that informs school staff of the accommodations, modifications, special education, or related services that must be provided so that a student who has a disability can have their educational needs met as adequately as the needs of a non-disabled student. Accommodations should be tailored to the student’s individual needs and cannot be limited to free, low cost, or a pre-determined set of options.

All accommodations, modifications, special education, or disability-related services should be identified in a student’s 504 Plan with specificity.

A 504 Plan should be revisited if there is a change in the student’s needs or the educational environment, if a student refuses to use an accommodation, or if an accommodation is not effective.

All staff members required to implement a student’s 504 Plan must receive a copy of the plan and be directed to contact the Section 504 coordinator with any questions or concerns about implementation. Failure to implement is one of the primary issues that leads parents to file OCR complaints.

Conclusion

Though the procedural requirements of Section 504 are not as stringent as those of the IDEA, violations can lead to hearings, OCR complaints, and civil lawsuits. To avoid such time-consuming and costly results, school officials should ensure that all staff are trained on Section 504’s requirements. Thrun Law Firm is hosting a Section 504 training webinar on March 5, 2025. To register for this webinar, please click here.