504 Background

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act has been more on the minds of school administrators, especially in light of the recent reauthorization of IDEA, and the ADA (Americans With Disabilities Act) of 1990. Until 1990, this much-ignored law (the 1973 Rehabilitation Act) was focused on the need for a process by which students in programs receiving Federal funding could be served effectively within schools.

The 1990, the ADA opened an entirely new set of concerns about students who had been failing in a mainstream school setting. This Act, while legislating discrimination prevention and requiring accommodations for those individuals with typical physical handicaps - blindness, deafness, paraplegia and quadraplegia to name a few - also identified certain other handicaps as criteria for the provision of special services, particularly within school settings.

How does this affect current school policies and planning?

District Responsibilities:

Access - School Districts must provide access to equivalent facilities, services and activities. Districts are responsible for activities, facilities or services provided by another entity as well.

Accommodations - Regardless of the nature or severity of the handicap, schools must provide a FAPE to each student in the district. Applies as well to programs it refers a student to on a part or full time basis.

Discipline - Removal of a Section 504-eligible student for 10 or more days constitutes a "significant change in placement" and triggers a reevaluation and due process requirement. A team of professionals is formed to perform this evaluation and process.

Evaluation - Districts are directed to perform an evaluation of any student who needs or is believed to need Section 504 services.

Why 504 Manager© Software?

Chalkware's 504 Manager is designed to provide the evaluation team a powerful database tool to prepare accommodation and discipline plans for 504 - eligible students. Each program is complete with the forms necessary to document the plan, a library of accommodation statements to assist specific students in achieving success in the classroom and school environment, and a means to track and modify student educational plans and records. Entries made on any page places common information on all pages!

504 Manager© includes a complete set of forms pre-designed to address:

504 Manager© features and documents

  • Student Referral
  • Evaluation
  • Accommodation planning
  • Letters to Parents for meetings, suspensions, and re-evaluations.
  • Requests to other staff for services
  • Class Management profile
  • 60-Day tracking of case dates and actions
  • Other customer-requested documents
  • Navigation Tools
  • No repetitive entries!
  • One Button Printing
  • File sharing capabilities

Don't get caught without a net.