“Life After Whitman for Students With Accommodations”
May 27, 2015
Sponsored by the Whitman PTSA’s Students With Accommodations Committee
Featuring a panel of parents of Whitman grads who received accommodations during high
school:
Deborah DeMille-Wagman (who also provided her perspective as a member of American
University’s disabilities office)
Karen Finucan Clarkson
Lisa Grove
Magdalena Smoot
Before College
Before sending students away to college, think about whether they have the life skills needed
to run their own lives. These skills need to be taught and practiced in high school (just “knowing
how” is not enough). For instance, panelists noted that college students will likely need to have
experience with
 Doing laundry
 Getting prescriptions filled and understanding dosages
 Writing checks (and other financial management skills)
 Checking emails regularly (not only might professors communicate that way, but college
financial documents—bills!—are typically sent via email)
 Getting proper sleep
 Advocating for self with teachers
 Advocating for self with peers (can be very important for relationships with roommates)
 Practicing resilience for when life doesn’t go according to plan (how would a student
handle things if his flight was cancelled or if her phone broke?)
The College Search
College counselors, especially those who specialize in serving students with special needs (Joan
Wittan was mentioned by name), can offer families the expertise of knowing the schools that
are most willing and able to help students needing services. Other parents of students with IEPs
or 504 Plans can also a great source of information about schools. And colleges may be able to
provide recommendations of other colleges that could be good fit.
Get a hint of a school’s commitment to serving students with accommodations by googling
“disability office” within each college students are considering. This will give you an idea of how
big the department is and what kinds of services are offered. BUT some schools might be very
accommodating even if their services aren’t well documented online. This comes down to the
culture of the school in providing a strong support network for students in general.
Also check the kinds of documentation schools require to receive accommodations in college.
Deborah—noting that the 2008 amendments to the American with Disabilities Act relieved the
formerly extreme burden of proof required to document disability (e.g., testing and within a
certain number of years)—felt that if a school required more document it was an indication
that it might be less likely to understand disabilities and the law. Karen pointed out, however,
that some schools might have state requirements that lead them to demand more stringent
proof and felt parents and students shouldn’t dismiss the possibility of a particular college
simply because of its proof of disability requirements.
Visit each college’s disabilities office when you visit the school to get a feel for how equipped
they are to handle students, especially students with needs similar to your teen’s. Find out how
many students they serve and the number of students per professional staff. Ask about the
graduation rate for those students. (And be aware that college graduation rates are generally
for percentage of students who graduate within six years, not four, and it’s not unusual for
students to take five years to complete their degrees.)
Don’t confuse what student wants vs. what parent wants. Let students take the lead. If they
aren’t working toward applications, maybe they need more time. This could be had by taking a
gap year. There are also some transition programs offered as summer prep or Landmark
College (which is a college-level transition program).
Other Considerations
PRIVACY POLICIES: Some schools insist they cannot provide parents with information about
their students because of restrictions in FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act),
but others figure out ways to provide students with waivers to allow families to be informed.
This can include access to grades and billing information as well as concerns about a student’s
mental health or extended absence from class.
SCHOOL/CLASS SIZE: Lots of students—especially those with learning challenges—know they
wouldn’t do well in a large lecture hall of 200 students.
PROXIMITY TO HOME: Although there was a general consensus that families feel more
comfortable when students attend a college within a few hours’ drive to home, Karen noted
that one of her sons attended college in Washington state (because other factors felt so right).
To help ensure that her son acclimated well and had a close-by support system initially, she
stayed nearby for a week after dropping him off his first year.
AVAILABILITY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES: If students take psychiatric medication, consider
whether there a psychiatrist on campus, and, if not, how a student would reach a psychiatrist if
needed (this could be especially problematic for a rural campus). Similarly, families may want to
note whether mental health services are available on campus, who provides them, and what
the waiting lists can look like.
MONTGOMERY COLLEGE: Three of the four panelists had experience with Montgomery College
and gave it high marks for providing support—even offering accommodations they didn’t seek.
It was also noted that most private schools are looking for transfer students, and will typically
be interested in students with a 2.8 or better GPA from a community college.
Applying to College
Unless students need to discuss their disabilities as explanation for some deficiencies in their
application, they probably should not disclose their disabilities when applying. It is not a legal
requirement (and is not tied to receiving accommodations once admitted), and not everyone
understands disabilities, especially invisible disabilities such as learning differences and ADHD.
TESTING: Schools are not aware of whether students received accommodations for their
college testing. More schools are becoming “test optional,” which can mean a variety of
things—from simply not requiring or examining SATs/ACTs from any applicants to only
requiring testing in certain situations to allowing applicants to submit a portfolio or project in
place college test scores. (More can be found at www.fairtest.org.)
Accommodations in College
Legally, colleges should not be requiring testing within a certain number of years in order to
provide accommodations. Thus, families can challenge such requirements, depending upon
how brazen they are. But some panelists thought it might be easier and more productive to just
provide the proof rather than fight.
Keep in mind that students are unlikely to receive as much support in college as they were
provided in high school. Even accommodations that are called the same thing will probably look
different than they did in high school. For instance, being provided with notes might mean
getting a copy of another student’s notes rather than the teacher’s notes. Or a student with a
flexible attendance accommodation might find that that applies to attendance in class but not
for working on group projects.
Students might be eligible to receive tutoring services. Find out if that is peer tutoring or
professional tutoring.
The Livescribe pen system seems a promising method for note-taking, but students may be
resistant to using it. In addition, because this system includes audio recording (synced to penand-paper notes), it would require permission from professors.
Some students who received accommodations in high school don’t think they’ll need
accommodations in college, but panelists recommended they try to keep services in place.
College Class Schedules
Students should consider taking only 12 credit hours (vs. a typical 15) per semester during their
first year of college to ease the transition. Some schools might recommend starting with 15 and
then dropping one class if needed, but that requires an additional step and some schools can
make that step quite onerous.
Scholarships might stipulate that students take a full 15 credit hour course load in order to
receive funding, but students should be able to request fewer hours as an accommodation.
When students build their schedule, they should be sure to leave room during the day for
studying and preparing for class. In other words, don’t pack classes on top of classes.