Have you asked the school what they require? Your post asks for the ‘easiest’ way to get accommodations, and I think the easiest way is to simply ask. If all he’s asking for is to record lectures and to take notes on a computer, I don’t think he’s going to get a lot of resistance to that even if he doesn’t have official accommodations (it may depend on the professor). A friend did have official accommodations to take notes by computer and did have one professor who made those taking notes by computer to sit in the front section to prevent (discourage?) just web surfing during class or distracting others but that was 10+ years ago and I think there are many many more students who take notes by computer during class.
I don’t think what you are asking for are unusual for ALL students these days - recording lectures, using laptops. I know you want to be sure the accommodations are in place, but just ask.
You might also ask if the IEP can be converted to a 504 plan.
I did ask. The school said that they would need updated testing and a diagnosis within the last three years – including a doctor’s letter specifying how and why they arrived at the diagnosis, and what accommodations are suggested.
The school asked my son to fill out the initial application for accommodations and attach any older documentation we have, so they could at least start a file and get this process going. They said they could perhaps put temporary accommodations in place for only the first semester while we wait for the updated testing.
I agree, lots of kids type notes and/or record lectures – but I suspect college will be significantly harder for my kid than high school was, and I would love for him to have a document specifying what his various limitations are (poor working memory, difficulty with executive function, so many things – plus all the motor skills stuff).
I really have no idea how he’ll perform, and he might need a lot of grace with his schoolwork, lol.
Always best to register with the Office of Disabilities or Access or whatever it is called. The requirements they cited for your son demonstrate what we came to learn: the Office of Disabilities is a filter. I once read it called the “guard dog of the curriculum” meaning it filters out any threat in terms of administrative or financial costs, or changes to the academic program, due to requests for accommodations.
In our experience once registration is approved, the O of D doesn’t do much. The student gets letters to give to professors and advocates for themselves, and is not required to tell professors what their disability is. Deans and advisors tend to be extremely helpful in making sure students are properly accommodated so once the student learns the ropes, so to speak, that registration with the O of D can make a huge difference, even though other professionals facilitate them.
We’ve seen the exact opposite at S23 school and it seemed to be the case at the other schools we looked at, but part of our process was to seek out schools that were LD friendly.
At S23s schools the O of D provides counseling, tutoring, affinity groups and is often the go between when students are having issues with professors, deans or advisors. In fact, when one professor wasn’t following S23’s accommodations, he was told by the O of D that he needed to go through them, rather than contact the professor directly. It was a simple matter of getting PowerPoints before the class and my son had no issue going to the professor himself, but he was told not to and to follow the process. I’m not sure their reasoning, but perhaps it’s accountability and record keeping.
That’s great! I have 3 kids with various challenges and it was always a struggle until they figured how the system worked. O of D was never involved in problem-solving so I am glad to read another experience. Should be helpful to the OP!
Unfortunately, with the gatekeeping already happening with OP, I don’t think their O of D is one of the “helpful” ones.
Even though S23 has minimal accomodations, O of D was usually the first thing we researched after major and other must haves. Perhaps it is because he went to a school that specialized in learning differences and a big part of that was prepping them to advocate from themselves once they got to college. We saw everything from “as long as you had accommodations ever in school” to " must have recent testing and back up documentation". S23 was able to tell pretty quickly how each school would be to work with from his initial contact with them.
They will give accommodations, my son was offered one where he could turn in work 24 hours late if he gave enough heads up, but I wouldn’t expect easier grading or re-testing or extra credit.
Definitely have your student schedule their appointment ASAP with the DO, and when they do, have them ask if they’ll need to request accommodations each year or each semester. Our S23 was caught off guard when he realized his school requires students to renew accommodations each semester, so he was scrambling to get them in place prior to midterms spring semester his freshman year.