Section 504: Understanding the Law Being School Accommodations, with Linda Silver | EDB 330
Linda J. Silver, M.S., Ed.S. discusses Section 504 of the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and her career ensuring appropriate accommodations for students.
Linda J. Silver, M.S., Ed.S. is the Executive Director and Founder of Silver & Associates Educational Consulting Solutions. She is an expert in the field of Section 504, an award winning certified school counselor, a nationally recognized speaker and published author advocating for students with disabilities. Linda’s training and work experiences have given her a unique perspective on children, schools and school district dynamics. Linda has been a Teacher, Guidance Director, Educational Leader, District Guidance Coordinator. She was selected to work at the school district level in administrative positions serving grades Pre-K to 12 for Broward County Schools, Ft. Lauderdale, FL the 6th largest school district in the United States. In her roles as the School District Section 504/ADA Specialist and as the School District Guidance Coordinator for the School Board of Broward County, Florida she oversaw over 340 schools with over 265,000 students.
Silver & Associates Educational Consulting Solutions provides expert educational consultation services to parents and schools districts; ensuring equal access to education for all students and helping transform students’ lives.
For more information about Linda’s work: www.504advocacy.com
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DR HAROLD REITMAN (HR):
Hi, I’m Dr Hackie Reitman. Welcome to another episode of Exploring Different Brains, and today, we have with us Linda Silver, who does all that hard work for those of us whose brains are a little bit different, getting us the accommodations we need when we’re in school to make sure everything’s being followed as it should, to maximize everybody’s potential. Linda, welcome.
LINDA SILVER (LS):
Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me today. I really appreciate it.
HR:
Now, why don’t you introduce yourself properly, not the way I did?
LS:
Okay, I would love to. So I feel very fortunate because I’ve had a very extensive career. Currently, I’m the executive director and founder of silver and Associates educational consulting solutions, and as you mentioned, we do work with students so that they have the 504 eligibility and accommodations also IEPs also accommodations, when they’re taking the SAT, ACT, LSAT, you name it, which is really exciting. And prior to that, all right, I started out as a Spanish teacher and went back to school several times to get post grad work, educational leadership. So I did have a role as a principal in a small special needs school during covid, which was a very different role for me, but it was, it was exciting, and also as a school counselor, guidance director, and at the district level, in charge of 504 and in charge of school counseling. And my time at the district level in 504 I’m very proud of the work that we did, because at that time, everything was paper, pencil, nothing was electronic, nothing was standardized. People were just invent, literally inventing accommodations. Oh yeah, maybe that sounds okay. Well, what do you want? Okay, oh, sure, we’ll write that down for you. Not a problem. There was no oversight, or not a lot of oversight, I should say. So I’m proud of the work. So depending what district you’re in, when you pull up those accommodations, those are accommodations that we wrote to make it so that it was more equitable for students, which is exciting. And I had two amazing role models in my life. My mom, who worked till she was 92 in her own business. My grandmother, till she was 90 in her own business, not saying to work till I’m 90. Okay, but the excitement, the passion, it’s there, and if it when it’s not there, then someone shouldn’t be doing their job anymore. Okay, so wasn’t ready to retire, and anytime I feel that you can work with students and families and you can help them, is a good not only is it a good day, but it gives your life so much more meaning. It’s beautiful. The
HR:
first thing that struck me preparing for this was the importance of the law that was passed called section 504 which tell our audience what it is.
LS:
Okay, I’d love to, because I really feel that there’s a lot of misconceptions about what it is and what it isn’t. So first off, what people don’t realize it was passed as civil rights legislation, and the reason it was passed is because students that had disabilities were being discriminated against, and so when they passed the law, they felt that these students needed to have the same type of opportunities as non disabled students. So they say of this law that it levels the playing field for those students now, in order to qualify, you need to have a physical and mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. But back in 2008 they revised the law, and actually they’re waiting now for another revision. But going back to 2008 it was only the major life activity of learning that allowed you to be qualified. And as you know, that’s a very small facet, okay for a student. So when they expanded the law, it was meant to incorporate so much more. So, for example, not only is it learning, but it’s communicating, it’s hearing, it’s seeing, listening, writing, you know, being able to dress yourself, being able to lift, to bend, I mean, you name it, it, there’s a whole gamut. So it’s much more inclusive in that sense. But I also feel what parents don’t realize is, not only is this an important law, okay, because it pro. Prohibit schools from discriminating against you. But it’s so much more than just accommodations in the classroom. So it transcends K to 12, because it also goes into college. It goes into postgraduate so we’re talking law school, med school, you know, all kinds of postgraduate programs, also before kindergarten. Okay, you’re entitled to services. And okay, believe it or not, sports, all right, so if you have athletic ability and you can be on the team, and one of the reasons is that you need accommodations. They can’t preclude you from playing on that team and being in that sport. Advanced Placement classes, you have no idea, okay, how many students who have the ability to be in an advanced placement class and they were not allowed to be in that class because the school did not want to provide the accommodation. That’s against the law, all right? And they would tell parents, oh, no, you know, it’s going to be too much for them. You know, put them in a lower level class, but they had the ability the school just didn’t want to provide. Also, before care, after care field trips. That’s another biggie, okay? So if you have a student that has medical needs, and that student needs, for example, on a field trip, to have, you know, some type of personnel to monitor. So for example, if a student has diabetes, if the student has you know, seizures, they can’t force a parent to be the chaperone, and you have no idea how many times parents were told, if you don’t chaperone your child, your child can’t go, okay, that’s against the law. That’s discriminatory. So you know it impacts in so many other ways. And so you know parents just need to be aware, okay, what’s out there and how it can help their child.
HR:
And not just parents. I think a lot of the well intentioned not for profits, such as I’m on the board of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Broward County.
LS:
Yes, after school programs as well. Yes, yes.
HR:
And so many of our kids have different issues, yes, yes. And many of them don’t even have parents. So it’s tough.
LS:
You’re absolutely 100% correct. It’s parents, it’s guardians, caretakers, but it’s also school personnel. You’d be amazed, okay, at the school level, how not informed they might be. And so I feel it’s my job to help inform them, you know, in terms of, you know what it what it looks like, and how it needs to be for that particular student.
HR:
And many times, based on my limited knowledge, it’s not the teacher’s fault they haven’t received the training Correct. Just like in medicine, I gave the first ever lectures at Boston University are neurodiversity. We don’t get that medical school.
LS:
Correct, but what happens is, you know, when I was in charge of section 504, for the school district and that, and I feel very fortunate because I had such I’ve had such a varied career, but that was the thing they would get one training once a year. Okay, so how is that helpful? It’s not, you know. So you know, made sure we did ongoing, okay, ongoing trainings and and also making it user friendly, you know what I’m saying, so that you come out with information that you could take back to your school and you can use. It’s not just someone lecturing at you, you know, and telling you all this stuff that you submitted. You walk out the door. First of all, you’re not even paying attention. Okay when you’re there, but walking out the door, you don’t remember what’s being said. But rather, you know, I saw that as very important piece making sure that it was understood at the school level.
HR:
Say I’m a parent and my child is being denied reasonable accommodations. What do I do?
LS:
Okay, so I have a couple of questions for you all right, in terms of, why are they being denied? In other words, do they currently have a plan and the plan is not being implemented the way it was developed. All right, so that’s one way that you could be denied having an accommodation. Is it that the parent came into the school requesting accommodations and they’re told, No, we can’t, or we won’t, or we don’t, all right, or is it that the plan needs to be revised, and the parent may or may not, you know, want that revision, because sometimes there’s accommodations on there that the parents want to keep on there, and they don’t want to let go. They don’t want to take it off, because they. Just in case. But this isn’t meant to be a just in case situation, so, but again, if a parent’s coming in, schools are required to evaluate students that are suspected of a disability, so they can’t deny a parent to say we’re not going to go through the evaluation process. The third possible scenario is you have the meeting, and at the meeting, the student is denied eligibility. So if that were to happen, the parent has rights. They can now go through a due process situation with the school district, a mediation situation so they can, they can pursue it further past that meeting. Okay, so I guess you know, wanting to know, is it, if it’s not a case where it’s it’s not being implemented, and I always tell parents, make sure that piece of paper is only as good okay, as what’s being provided to your child. So if what’s on there is not being provided, you know. So you kind of need to monitor and make sure you have to go back to the school and just say, you know this, this accommodation in particular isn’t being provided. Now, is it an elementary, a middle high. So if it’s Elementary, it’s one teacher, if it’s Middle High…
HR:
And then what is the difference if I’m a parent and my child is in public school versus private school?
LS:
Okay, good question. So it’s public law, meaning that schools have to provide something called FAPE, which is free, appropriate public education. However, a private school, if they are receiving any kind of federal funding, they are also beholding to upholding the law and not discriminate against students with disabilities. I’ve worked with both public and private students, and one of the big differences is that in the private school sector, it’s the governing body of the school that determines, you know what they’re going to do or not do, and so most of the privates, they do have some form of accommodation plan that they utilize. They’re not going to call it necessarily the same thing as the PRI as the public schools do, but they do offer it. But the question is how much they are willing to offer, because it’s private, so they depending on the school, they could offer a lot, or they could say, You know what, we can’t and we don’t have the personnel. Or on the back end of it, they don’t accept those students to begin with.
HR:
And if they do give accommodations, they don’t want the name of it to reflect badly on the school for prestige and so forth.
LS:
Correct. And some of the very well known private schools, they have a separate entity within that larger school meant for those students, and they do charge more okay for that child to be in that program. Typically, there’s less students than in a regular class, you know. So there’s there’s other things. Parents, you know, they need to do their homework before they decide to go a private school scenario to make sure it’s going to meet your child’s needs. Because sometimes, even though it’s a terrific school, and it’s got the name, it may not be the best placement for their child.
HR:
What sort of documentation should parents have handy before they try to get accommodations for their kids?
LS:
Okay. So, because it’s so unique for each child, and there’s so many different disabilities, it really depends on what it is they’re trying to do. So for example, if it’s a medical disability, so if it’s diabetes, seizures, for example, you’re going to have medical information from your doctor. And what I like to always tell parents and guardians and caregivers is that that medical documentation, when you provide it to the school, the school has to write up a health care plan. But a health care plan is not the same as a 504 accommodation plan. It’s two different things, and when I was in the school district, it was the nurse knew about the health care plan, the teachers knew about the accommodation plan, but nobody knew about each other. So I used to joke, and I’d say, Okay, we’re going to marry them together. Okay? And so that’s when we started having trainings, you know, with the school personnel, the health personnel, so that everybody understood what the needs were for that particular child. So. I was giving you some medical examples, but I’d like to give you also another type of example. All right, the student who has ADHD, for example. So that child is the parent’s going to bring in a medical diagnosis and say, okay, my child has attention deficit disorder, and I want accommodations. And so they give the doctor’s note, thinking, sometimes, okay, it’s a given, because I brought something from a doctor. The doctor says he needs it, the doctor says he needs extra time. And they go, that’s very nice, but that medical diagnosis, in and of itself, is not enough. So the parents kind of surprised, because they feel that whatever the doctor says should overrule what everybody else is doing. And in the 504, world, educational world, all right, that doctor’s note doesn’t have more validity than anybody else’s information. It’s part of the process. So which parents are always very surprised with that, because they don’t expect that. So going through the process, the school is going to give the parent consent. Parent has to sign it. The parent always has the right to revoke consent. School cannot do anything without the parent knowing about it and the parent giving permission. Then what the school is going to do on their end is they’re now going to gather information, and what does that information look like? It’s going to be specific to that child. So two children could have the same diagnosis, but their needs could be completely different, sure. All right, so that student who has the ADHD, he may be having some behavioral issues. He may be having some anxiety issues. I just had a student now that was the case, maybe having some learning issues. So now the documentation that they’re going to gather is going to be relevant to that. So do they need to do an observation in the classroom? Do they need to do interventions to see, let’s try some things for six weeks. See, does this work? It doesn’t work. Let’s get gather up the data. The parent plays such an important Guardian plays such an important part in this process, because they need to bring in previous information, you know? So this has been a long standing problem, you know? We need to know it’s not something maybe it just happened. For example, I always try to empower the families that I work with in that they are their best advocate. And if the child is older, like Middle High School, I always make sure that I also work with that student, because I need to be their voice in the meeting. So when you go through the process, it’s time consuming. It doesn’t happen right away, unfortunately.
HR:
So give us an example of this, one of your success stories.
LS:
Okay. I like to think that all of the students and families that I work with are success stories and not because of me in the sense of, it’s not about me, it’s about the student, it’s about the family, but it’s a success story because I don’t give up. So I don’t take no for an answer. I keep going, I keep pushing. I try different avenues. Okay? So if something doesn’t work, I try to come up with another solution that’s really important to me, because at the end of the day, it’s going to impact that student, okay? It’s going to impact their life, not just in school, but afterwards. But I’ll tell you a quick well, two quick scenarios. One was a principal that called me, it was a friend of their family, and the student was in medical school, and the student was in a Ivy medical school. Okay, the student wanted to be a pediatrician, however, the student was in the ER rotation, and the student wasn’t able to keep up. He wasn’t able to do things quickly in the ER, they wanted to kick him out, uh huh. And I’m like, Okay, I’m like, Okay, this is interesting. I said I haven’t worked with a med student before, but I was up to the challenge, just because I’m thinking, wow, this poor kid, I mean, his whole life wants to be a doctor, isn’t going to be an ER doctor, and wants to be a pediatrician. And so we kind of work through a lot of things, but and the accommodations that he was entitled to, but the school didn’t want to provide. And so it was an interesting scenario, very interesting, but I was so happy that we were able to work through all of this, and he was able to stay in med school. But another one that was recent was a high schooler private. And what I’m finding a lot of times is you have kids who were smart, who are now working with a tutor, ACT, SAT. These tutors are fine. Ending issues that this child, okay, has managed to basically, kind of block it out. They’re good students, and so they come up with techniques, tactics, whatever. But they have major anxiety. They have a learning disability. They have all kinds of things. So in this particular private school, she did have some accommodations, but she needed more. And so we went through the route with psycho educational, updated testing and everything else, and the personnel school were willing to do the extra things that she needed. And so I reached out to the principal, and the principal says, Nope, sorry, can’t meet with you. Now, mind you, this is they’re paying a lot of money. And you know that to me, was not a satisfactory answer. And so I wrote a very impassioned letter to the principal, and he changed his mind. He met with us, and not only he was gracious enough not only to meet with us, but give us an hour and a half of his time, so we were able to achieve some of the things that we needed, some of the things he wasn’t so willing to bend on, but I felt at least we were able to be heard.
HR:
You don’t give up.
LS:
No, I don’t.
HR:
Good for you. How can people learn more about you and your work?
LS:
Okay, so they can email me, Linda@504advocacy.com or they can check out my website, www.504advocacy.com I’m on LinkedIn. My phone number for our business is 1 844 504 INFO and just to share with you, we do more than when I started, and I do need to update my website, we were just focusing on 504 Okay, that’s been a personal love of mine, okay, but we have branched out. We do IEPs. We do accommodations for SAT and ACTs. We’re good at denials, because I don’t take no for an answer. So don’t say, don’t say, no. You can’t give them the accommodation, because we’re going to come back and we’re going to do whatever it takes to get those accommodations. But also College, post grad, and even more, you know, I think because of my counseling background, you know, I’m able, and I was very fortunate to be both in the schools and in the district and also at the national level, to do a lot. So I’ve got a lot of experience and and also I’m bilingual, so that also helps. We have a lot of families coming in from Spain, central South America, and they’re not knowledgeable about our school systems here.
HR:
If you could change one thing about how schools support neurodivergent students. What would that be?
LS:
More training that would be at the top of my list, and if there is no formalized training, I think it’s imperative, all right, if you have students in your class, okay, that you know everyone learns differently, and if you want that child to learn in your class and you need to figure out what’s the best way to reach them. So I feel that it behooves that individual to learn for themselves, if so, if their school or their district is not giving them specialized training, they need to get that training for themselves. And there’s a lot of professionals that I know do do that because they want to make sure that they are doing their very best for their students. And then the second thing empathy, because I feel what happens, especially as students progress into secondary. Unfortunately, I see some, not all, teachers that are teaching their graded subject matter, but they’re not teaching kids, and so I feel that they put yourself in that child’s shoes, okay, or that parent’s that family’s shoes, and I think that sometimes is missing.
HR:
Linda Silver, it’s been a great, great opportunity for us to talk to you. I learned a lot, 504advocacy.com. Linda Silver, keep up the great work. Thank you. We hope you’ll be a guest again.
LS:
I would love it. I really would thank you.
