A college disability director gets one question all the time. Does a high school IEP or 504 plan follow a student to college? Her answer is short. “Absolutely not.” If that drops your stomach, you are not alone. And if nobody at school told you, that is not on you.
FROM THE VIDEO
Key moments from Let’s Talk Learning Disabilities with Nada Cross, Director of Disability Services at Texas Woman’s University:
Common questions from parents
Does my child’s IEP or 504 plan transfer to college?
Does my child need a new evaluation for college?
Will disability services give my child tutoring?
Is a screener the same as a diagnosis?
Your child's IEP or 504 plan ends at graduation. In college, nobody comes looking. A disability director on the one call to make first, and the line to practice.
Why doesn’t the IEP or 504 plan follow my child to college?
The law changes at graduation. In school, a law called IDEA puts the job on the school. IDEA stands for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Under it, schools must find children who need help, and then serve them. That duty ends when your child graduates from high school.
College runs on two other federal laws. One is Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The other is the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA. Both ban unfair treatment because of a disability. High school 504 plans come from Section 504 too. Its college rules work differently. The Congressional Research Service writes reports for Congress. It sums up the college rule. A college must respond when a student asks for accommodations. It has no duty to go find the students who need them.
In college, nobody comes looking, so your child has to raise a hand. Nada Cross directs disability services at Texas Woman’s University. She put the change in one line. College accommodations are there “to guarantee access not success.” They open the door to the same hard work everyone does. They do not promise the grade. Our parent library covers whether dyslexia counts as a disability under US law.
The podcast host said not all high schools prepare families for this move. That is a gap in the system. Here is how to close it.
In college, nobody comes looking, so your child has to raise a hand.
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
What should we do before graduation?
Start with one phone call. Call the disability services office at each college on your list. Ask what paperwork it needs to approve accommodations. Make that call before you book a new evaluation. That is Cross’s own advice.
The rules differ from school to school. Some colleges accept older paperwork, Cross says, if it fits your child today. Others want testing from the last three years. College entrance exams have their own rules for accommodations. The podcast notes that the testing companies are strict about dates.
At Cross’s office, the student’s own account comes first. She says the student “is the expert in their disability” because “they live with it every day.” Paperwork backs that up. So help your child practice saying it out loud. What is hard? What helps? Two plain sentences are a strong start.
The asking keeps going after sign-up. At her school, students pick which supports to use in each class, every term. Professors then get an official notice. Your child runs that process, not you.
- Call each college’s disability services office. Ask what paperwork it needs.
- Gather the IEP or 504 plan and every evaluation you have.
- At the next school meeting about the plan, let your child speak first.
- Practice two sentences together: what is hard, and what helps.
- After admission, your child registers with disability services and asks. Supports start after that request.
Key takeaways
- The plan ends at graduation: College runs on Section 504 and the ADA, so the student must ask.
- Call before you test: Each college sets its own paperwork rules, so ask disability services first.
- Practice the ask: Two sentences on what is hard and what helps start the conversation.
How does my child speak up when a professor says no?
Cross says the hardest part never goes away. It is the power gap between a student and a professor. Say a professor tells your child that typing notes is unfair to others. Cross has a plain answer: “fairness is not the measure.” An approved accommodation is part of the plan. It is not a favor.
What her office looks for is a “fundamental alteration.” That means a change so big the course turns into a different course. She calls that rare. Her example of a real concern: a laptop in a lab with open chemicals. Teach your child a calm script. “This is one of my approved accommodations. Would it change what the course is meant to teach?” If your child feels outmatched, Cross says her office steps in as the advocate.
One more story from her office is worth a close look. Extra time on exams is the support students ask for most. Homework is another matter. For students with learning differences, her office usually says no. College work is posted a week or more ahead. The syllabus shows the whole term. So her team teaches time planning instead. That choice builds a skill. It is the question we want every family to ask about each support. Is this support building the skill, or replacing the expectation that it gets built?
This is not a case against accommodations. Your child has every right to ask for the ones they need. Nobody will ever advocate for your child as hard as you will. The job now is to hand that skill over. College runs on self-advocacy, and the practice starts at your kitchen table. Your child isn’t broken. Their brain is learning differently. In college, they get to say so in their own words.
Is this support building the skill, or replacing the expectation that it gets built?
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
We believe your child deserves to walk into college ready to speak up. The old system runs the plan for the student, then drops it at graduation. The free Learning Difficulties Analysis asks what you see at home. It gives you plain words to help your child describe how they learn. It does not diagnose; only a professional evaluation gets an IEP or 504 plan. Start the free Learning Difficulties Analysis.
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Why we use AI, plainly: it writes from a knowledge base our team maintains and audits. We work through it line by line and pull anything the evidence stops supporting. The roadmap you get on Tuesday reflects what we corrected on Monday, and a human still reads it before you do.
Your school district must evaluate your child free of charge if you ask in writing, whatever your income and whatever the outcome (US, 34 CFR 300.111 and 300.301(b)). That route takes time and answers a different question than you do. This one starts today, from what you already know.
Your answers stay yours. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not hand identifiable assessment data to outside AI companies to train their models.
A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis. If your child might need formal accommodations (an IEP or 504 plan), or you suspect a vision, hearing or medical cause, pursue a professional evaluation too. That is the only route to those supports.
