<p>One of my concerns with selecting the right college is finding a school which offers single rooms in a quiet dorm because my son is sound sensitive and has Aspergers. I found a couple of universities which said that my son would have to apply and document the need for a single room because the single rooms are reserved for students with disabilities. I think single rooms should just be another option for all students with or without disabilities.
Why should a particular student have to document the need for a single room? Why can’t single rooms just be another option to check on the housing application without documenting disability needs?</p>
<p>If he needs the single room because he has a disability, then yes, it seems logical he should be able to document it. There are some colleges and universities where single rooms are possible but usually not for first-years, or it’s harder for first years. Colleges just don’t have the room to accomodate everyone that wants a single, and they can’t make them universally available sometimes because then the students that really NEED a single wouldn’t be able to get them since all the students who PREFER singles would snatch them up. </p>
<p>Most schools require a student to show documentation if they need a service due to their disability. If a student needed a note taker for example, or extra time on exams, they would have to provide documentation that effect. So if a student needs a single in order to maintain a reasonable quality of life due to a disability, it seems pretty normal to ask for documentation. </p>
<p>If you’re not interested in documenting, as I said, there are colleges where students can get singles, but since he’d be a first year with low seniority for housing, he runs the risk of not getting one. If he HAS to have one, then you should be prepared to document his need.</p>
<p>My high school IEP team said students who want disability services in college (and am not sure if a single room falls under this category), have to get an outside the school district private psychological report documenting the need for supports.
A psychological report can add another $2,000 or more to the bill. It seems like a lot of money to spend to document that a child is more successful in a quiet environment without a lot of socializing and therefore needs a quiet room.</p>
<p>If there are only a limited number of single rooms, then opening them up equally to every student would make it tougher for the kids with disabilities to get them. It seems to me that your son’s Asperger’s diagnosis would put him potentially at the top of the list for single rooms at colleges that reserve the rooms for students with documented disabilities, but that at a college that gives all students an equal shot, he could find it a lot harder to get a single room. </p>
<p>At most colleges, upper class students are more likely to get singles than freshmen – and at some colleges the room cost differential is enough to mean that the choice often reflects the family’s finances. Very few colleges have enough singles to go around for everyone, and most students would probably choose a single over a double if given the choice, especially at colleges with suite-style housing.</p>
<p>If your son has Asperger’s, don’t you already have a diagnosis for your son’s IEP? The colleges might vary on what type of documentation they would accept.</p>
<p>^^Agree. You probably have enough documentation from the IEP and the requisite testing?</p>
<p>We have an IEP but the testing is old and done before high school. Myhigh school IEP team said I would probably have to go for private testing after high school to document supports. I was surprised because I thought kids were protected under IDEA until age 21. Private testing is very expensive here and my child’s needs for anything extra is minimal, and not enough, in my opinion, to support paying for private testing.</p>
<p>As far as I know, IDEA does not apply to colleges – at the college level you are looking at ADA & section 504 accommodations. The point of IDEA is to provide support to get the student through high school or an alternate vocational program, if possible --and the age 21 limit is because many students have disabilities severe enough that they are not ready for high school level academic work until they are much older, if at all. (Keep in mind that IDEA is a big umbrella, so its provisions lump kids with profound intellectual disabilities under the same statutory rubric as kids who are capable intellectually but have other disabilities requiring support or accommodations).</p>
<p>D’s college required updated testing to qualify for disability services if it the existing test results were more than 4 years old. I’m of two minds about this. Certainly for LD and ADHD diagnoses, the passage of four years changes nothing. However, to the extent the most recent testing process produced IEP or 504 plan recommendations for high school, I think they should be revised/updated to take into account the very different academic demands and living conditions of college. But it seems to me that shouldn’t necessitate a pricey full-blown multi-day diagnostic testing procedure that few of us have the money to pay for and few of our kids have the time for. There needs to be a less expensive and less arduous “college updating” process for kids who have been living with disability diagnoses for years–I haven’t found any neuro-psych tester who offers this, though.</p>
<p>^^That’s too bad your testing is old. In our school the kids are required to be retested prior to every fourth year to maintain an IEP…as well as the student must utilize some of the options written in the IEP during the previous four years. The school handles the battery of tests. Anyway, you should be able to call the housing departments at the colleges your child is contemplating to understand what options are available to freshman since there are so many configurations and how difficult it would be to secure a single. Sometimes they are available at an up-charge. You may be able to secure one without the disability office.</p>
<p>I know…when a child has a “situation” …just seems so unfair that one has to constantly “provide documentation”…as if student/family doesn’t have enough to do just to keep things moving along …ok ok…enough ranting from me…
Check with the schools son is applying to and find out exactly what each of them require. Try contacting the student service office and speak directly with someone who can explain the school process. Some may be less troubling than others. Also, many colleges have lots of this info online.
Best of luck.</p>
<p>"One of my concerns with selecting the right college is finding a school which offers single rooms in a quiet dorm because my son is sound sensitive and has Aspergers. I found a couple of universities which said that my son would have to apply and document the need for a single room because the single rooms are reserved for students with disabilities. I think single rooms should just be another option for all students with or without disabilities.</p>
<p>Why should a particular student have to document the need for a single room? Why can’t single rooms just be another option to check on the housing application without documenting disability needs?"</p>
<p>Because there are not enough single rooms for everybody, and requiring application allows students that need the rooms a guarantee that they can get one. If ANYBODY can come up and say “oh, I have aspergers, I need a single room” without any proof, people WOULD take advantage of that and people who really do have disabilities wouldn’t be able to get the rooms they need. It’s not as if you are going to be turned away, they just want proof that there is some extenuating circumstance here.</p>
<p>Check what exactly this “documentation” is though. At my school they have strict requirements for academic accommodations, but HOUSING just requires a short form to be filled out by my doctor saying I have X and I need Y. Literally, the man had to write his name, his license number, that I have X disorder, and I need a single room. That was all, no questions asked. We faxed the form back and forth to each other and it was done within an hour, didn’t have to pay for anything, not a big deal. It just depends on the school.</p>
<p>There are only a few colleges where singles are available in abundance for freshmen – Cornell and Columbia are two of the best-known examples. But even at these schools, sophomores cannot get singles easily, so documentation of a medical need for a single would be necessary the second year.</p>
<p>My D was homebound for most of HS because of a medical disability. She also had an IEP. We did not to have to get new testing for college. I did have one doctor rewrite a letter with her medical disablity and needed accommendatons for college.
She did have a single room for the 1st 2 years. We found that the college used the IEP as documentation of a long standing problem.
Janie</p>
<p>Thanks so much for all of your great, helpful info. I tried to get my IEP team to repeat testing based upon the repeat testing every 3 years rule, and my team said testing is only done if you need a change of placement They refused to re-do testing. Also, since my son’s IEP is now minimal support, there does not appear to be a real need to re-test However, I think your ideas to find out exactly what kind of documentation is needed (i.e. is a doctor’s letter saying needs a single room due to Asperger’s personality) for a single room. My son could live at home and commute to the local community college. However, he would have to transfer to a 4 year school and move to a dorm.</p>
<p>Doing a quick research of my college’s housing policies, all they require is a detailed letter from the physician on official letterhead stating the condition and requirement(s). Note that you have to be really proactive on this as there is probably a deadline for assignments due to medical needs to be guaranteed. As others have said, contact the housing and campus disabilities office. I know that every class at my university is required to inform us of our right to receive disability services for that class in the syllabus.</p>
<p>I don’t know the specific schools involved, but many schools do not require sophomores, juniors, or seniors to live on campus.</p>
<p>You can investigate having your child’s testing done at the nearest college that has the services available (either though the education or psychology department). This testing is generally much less expensive than going through a private provider. </p>
<p>I am not sure that a school system could write “needs a single room” in an IEP, since your child doesn’t live at school. If you need documentation, I think it will have to come as part of an outside evaluation.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I don’t know where your son is applying, but I agree that I would check with housing at the various schools. For example, at MIT and CMU, one can have a single if willing to pay extra for it. At Caltech, there are 8 Houses, one of which is the “quiet” house. In addition, 3 of the remodeled houses have many single rooms, as many freshmen prefer them. Most of this information is available online, under housing.</p>
<p>My S wanted a rm/mt, but did invest in top quality earphones to diminish noise. I think he would have needed these whether in single or double.</p>
<p>1) see where your son gets in</p>
<p>2) call the disabilities offices there and ask what documentation is needed for a single room (most likely, for Asperger’s, a physician note on letterhead will suffice for getting a single) and what the d eadline is</p>
<p>3)write a letter to the disabilities office, fill out forms, whatever they want from you for this request</p>
<p>4) make an MD appt. for a check up and include this issue in the discussion (bring old testing and records)</p>
<p>5)Bring to the MD whatever forms there are, with address etc., and make sure it gets there by deadline (usually May 1); you can write the letter yourself and have the MD sign it, which ensures that the contents include what you want Often this can also be done by e-mail (you e-mail your content, the MD signs and sends to the disabilities office)</p>
<p>5) Most likely your child will need to meet with someone in the disabilities office- not you. Be prepared for their insistence on a parent staying out of things. This meeting can usually happen after the deadline, while the disabilities office folks are deliberating. But check with them about if and when it needs to happen.</p>
<p>6) Just before the deadline, you or your child can shoot an e-mail to make sure the disabilities office has everything it needs in order to make a decision. That covers you in case they later say you did not provide enough.</p>
<p>Asking for a single room is NOT a big deal, but it does have to go through these channels.</p>
<p>Our daughter had a single room freshman year, due to medical problems. Then she went on medical leave last year and lost the roommate she was going to have. This year, she has a small room off a bigger room, with a door that can be shut. Her roommate, whom she did not know, and who has anxiety and also needed a quiet situation, lives in the large room, and my daughter lives in the tiny one. </p>
<p>Next year, as a junior, she will get a single easily.</p>
<p>At her school, there seem to be several students she is aware of, who might have Asperger’s, but have roommates. Roommates work out relationships that may include not even talking with each other, and mutual rules about noise and so on.</p>
<p>However, for the first year, I think that adjustment to college is enough for some kids, and a single is the only way to go.</p>
<p>Thank you so much to everyone providing much valuable info. I’ll call the schools of interest to get the particulars involved for documenting the need for a single room and find out the probability of getting one. I appreciate the support that there really is no stigma to a single room, although the rep at a particular university made it sound like single rooms are reserved only for students with disabilities. I worry that someone could get the wrong impression because Asperger’s is not a physical appearance type of disability.</p>