Section 504 of the Rehabiliation Act of 1973

Study Guide developed by David M. Hales, M.ED.

The content of this web page was developed as an aid to either students or entry level teachers who have immediate need in their classroom for information related to Section 504 issues or accommodations.

This web site is being evaluated and updated during this development phase. Please contact the WSU Development Team Coordinator, Dr. Vicki Napper, with comments or suggestions for this web page. All contacts and comments welcome.

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Terms Defined

Index

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Accommodation Plan
Disability and Major Life Activities
IDEA
Special Education
IEP
Least Restrictive Environment
ADA
FAPE
OSEP
OCR

Return to Section 504 Index

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Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

Section 504 is a Federally created law that targets discrimination in all programs and agencies that receive any kind of Federal financial assistance.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 states:
No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in   the United States, as defined in section 706(8) of this   title, shall, solely by reason of his or her disability,  be excluded from the participation in, be denied the   benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any  program or activity receiving Federal financial    assistance (Rosenfeld, p. 10).

For schools, it is clear that we are recipients of Federal financial assistance and are therefore responsible for Section 504 requirements within our buildings and classrooms.
 

Accommodation Plan

A 504 accommodation plan is a document created by a team of educators for an individual student.  It outlines strategies which are intended to enable the student, with a qualified disabililty, to be successful in the general education classroom.
 

Disability and Major Life Activities

Section 504 protects all handicapped students who are defined as having any disability that substantially limits one or more major life activities, even if they do not fall under IDEA (Robinson, 1998).  Section 504 defined major life activities as:  (a)  caring for one's self, (b)  performing manual tasks, (c)  walking, (d)  seeing, (e)  hearing, (f)  speaking, (g)  breathing, (h)  learning, and (i)  working.  If a condition does not substantially limit a major life activity, the individual will not qualify under Section 504.

IDEA

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.  With IDEA, Congress created a process that distributed Federal funds to organizations, such as schools, that were in compliance with the regulations of IDEA.  States were held accountable for providing the services that were mandated.  IDEA is also known as Special Education.  It is not to be confused with Section 504, they are seperate and different legislation.
 

Special Education

This organization was created under the IDEA.  Federal funds are attached for carrying out Special Education requirements.  Special Ed is specific to 13 categories of disability.  The categories are:  (a)  autism, (b)  deafness, (c)  deaf-blindness, (d)  hearing impairments, (e)  mental retardation, (f)  multiple disabilities, (g) orthopedic impairments, (h)  other health impairments, (i)  specific learning disabilities, (k)  speech or language impairments, (l)  traumatic brain injury and (m) visual impairment.  Children who are qualified under the IDEA and special education regulations are entitled to a full educational opportunity, and Federal funds are provided to help the school district carry out this entitlement (Henderson, 1995).
 

IEP

IDEA mandated the creation of an Individual Educational Plan (IEP) for students who qualify for Special Education services, and students under the IDEA must be educated in the least restrictive environment possible.  The IEP must be reviewed annually.  Issues in special education most often deal with restructuring studentsí curriculum by special education teachers and this is where the IEP is utilized.
 

Least Restrictive Environment

To place the student in an educational environment with as few restrictions as possible so as to resemble the environment of a student without special restrictions.
To meet the individual educational needs of handicapped persons as adequately as the needs of non-handicapped persons are met.
 

ADA

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), was created in 1990.  Its purpose was to target the American agencies and businesses that did not fall under IDEA and Section 504.  It was meant to assist even the entities that did not receive Federal funding with rights and regulations for disabled Americans.  Because of its similarities to the requirements of Section 504, the ADA is briefly included here.
 

FAPE

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
34 C.F.R.  Part 104
Subpart D - Preschool, Elementary, and Secondary Ed.
Sec. 104.33 Free appropriate public education

States:
(a)  A recipient that operates a public elementary or secondary education program shall provide a free and appropriate public education to each qualified handicapped person who is in the recipientís jurisdiction, regardless of the nature or     severity of the personís handicap.

(b)  Appropriate education. (1) For the purpose of this subpart, the provision of regular or special education and related aids and services that are designed to meet individual educational needs of handicapped persons as adequately as the needs of non-handicapped persons are met.

The Federal government defined what was appropriate as is stated in section (b) above.

(c)  For the purpose of this section, the provision of a free education is the provision of educational and related services without cost to the handicapped person or to his or her parents or guardian, except for those fees that are imposed on non-handicapped persons or their parents or guardians.

The Federal government defined free in section (c) above.

Sec. 104.34 states concerning the educational setting;

(a)......A recipient (school) shall place a handicapped person in the general educational environment operated by the school unless it is demonstrated by the school that the education of the person in the general education environment with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily.

The 504 coordinator and 504 evaluation team determine and must demonstrate when the general education setting is not being achieved satisfactorily.  Parents still have a right to appeal if they should disagree with the teamís decision.
 

OSEP

IDEA is controlled by the Federal agency known as the Office of Special Education (OSEP).
 

OCR

If complaints arise, Section 504 is handled by a different Federal agency than IDEA, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) handles issues under Section 504.
 
 
  Return to Section 504 Index