Guest Blog By The Answer Class
Sending your child off to the big bad world of college (or a perfectly contained, safe, lovely world of no bills, a few classes and all kinds of fun) leaves many parents with all kinds of feelings. Sending your child with accommodations off adds a whole other layer of love, concern, excitement and worry. You want your child to go and live it up while at the same time ensuring they have the support they need to best succeed.
While colleges aren’t required to provide the same support to students with IEPs that high schools provide, many, if not most, colleges and universities offer varying levels of services to best support your child. And all colleges are required to follow accessibility laws. Federal laws prohibit colleges and universities from discriminating against students based on disability.
Whenever you go on a college tour, do some personal touring after the official tour ends. Stop by the student union and cafeteria, and if your child won’t disown you, strike up conversations with students to gauge what they like and dislike about the school. Shockingly, they will give you a more honest assessment than the tour guide provided by the admissions office. Your next stop should be the area around the school: are there fancy shoe stores, high-end restaurants and hipster cafes or pawn shops and dive bars? Different kids will react differently to either scenario, but it’s good to know what you’re getting into either way.
And finally make a point to stop by the office of student support often called “Disability Support Services,” “Student Disability Services,” or “Student Support Accommodations.” Usually, it makes sense to make an appointment ahead of time so you can ensure you see someone while you are on campus. This meeting will tell you a great deal about how accommodating—no pun intended—the school will be. Schools will not hold this against your child in the admissions process. And if they do, you don’t want your child going to that school anyway.
During that meeting feel free to ask the representative questions about your student’s specific accommodations and what support the school can provide (and by all means have your child ask as well and even better they should take the lead, as they will need to once they go to college).
In addition you can ask –
- What services are included in the regular tuition and which services would cost extra?
- How well do students with accommodations do with retaining (returning the next year) and graduating on time?
- How many students at your school receive accommodations?
- How well do faculty accept students with accommodations?
- What support staff does your office have for students?
Everyone should consider many factors when making their college list and decisions. The types, quality and thoughtfulness of the support can, and should, be one of those factors. This will increase the chances of college being that wonderful dream-like utopia we all hope our children get to experience before they have to go out into the big bad world.
Guest Blog By The Answer Class
The Answer Class provides Affordable and Convenient SAT & ACT Prep, College Essay Writing Workshops, and College Admissions Support.