Junior and senior year get consumed by GPA, test scores, and application essays. What often
gets skipped is the single biggest shift your student is about to experience: the legal framework
protecting them changes the day they graduate.
Here’s what to plan for starting freshman year of high school — not the summer before
freshman year of college. If you’re late to this, don’t worry, there are steps you can take; you’ll
just have a more consolidated timeframe to get it done.
About the author: I’m Hilary Reese — Coast Guard spouse, military mom, special education
advocate, and founder of The Dyslexia Life. I hold a graduate-level paralegal degree and a
Special Education Law Certificate from the University of San Diego, and I’ve spent 25+ years in
the military community. My own daughter has severe dyslexia and other learning disabilities —
getting her through K-12 and into college (she’s now thriving at Auburn University) took years of
fighting for the right evaluations, IEPs, and interventions. This guide is everything I wish
someone had handed me before she left for campus.
Looking for support? Book a consult at TheDyslexiaLife.com.
The Legal Shift: From IDEA + 504 to 504 + ADA
In K-12, your student was protected under IDEA and Section 504. The school had an affirmative
obligation to identify needs, evaluate, and provide FAPE (Free Appropriate Public Education) —
and to provide 504 plans for students who weren’t found eligible for an IEP but still needed
support due to a disability.
In college, IDEA protection ends. FAPE is not a college concept. What continues are Section
504 and ADA law, both of which are self-identification and self-advocacy models. Nobody is
required to find your student or check in on how they’re doing. The student has to:
● Disclose their disability to the school’s disability services office
● Provide documentation that meets that specific school’s criteria
● Request accommodations themselves, every semester, sometimes with every individual
professor
No IEPs or 504 plans exist in college. People get confused about this — colleges write
accommodation plans or disability plans (the name varies, but it’s always a legal document or
contract the university is agreeing to provide, based on your student’s disability and needs).
Federal law lets colleges and universities choose how they implement 504 and ADA
compliance, as long as they meet the required minimum. Every school has an office overseeing
this — sometimes called Disability Services, Accommodation Support, or something else
entirely — but they all serve the same function.
It’s also worth understanding why college support can feel like less, even at a fully compliant
school: IDEA is built around an outcome — FAPE means the student is supposed to actually
make progress. The ADA and 504 are built around access — the school has to provide a
reasonable accommodation, but it doesn’t have to fundamentally alter the academic program or
guarantee a particular outcome. Same legal protection in spirit, different standard in practice.
Why the “IEP Automatically Converts to a 504” Myth Is Wrong
There’s a persistent myth that your IEP automatically converts to a 504 plan, and that you need
to get your child a 504 plan before leaving high school “to be ready” for college. Do not act on
that reasoning. An IEP ends when your child graduates with a regular diploma, regardless of
whether they’ve turned 18. (Some students remain IDEA-eligible through age 21 or 22
depending on state law — this typically applies to students with more significant disabilities,
some of whom attend specialized post-secondary programs rather than traditional college.)
Nothing converts automatically. What matters going into college is documentation, not which
acronym was on the paperwork in 12th grade.
What Documentation Do Colleges Require for ADHD/LD Accommodations?
Once your student has a target list of schools, look up each one’s disability services office
directly — it should be on the school’s website — and find out exactly what documentation that
school accepts. There’s no universal standard. Documents schools potentially use include:
● Prior IEPs
● 504 plan documents
● Neuropsychological, psychoeducational, or clinical evaluation reports
● Letters from treating medical or mental health professionals
● School-based evaluations
● Other diagnostic data
(This is not an exhaustive list — it varies school to school.)
General rule of thumb: medical evaluations — neuropsychological, psychoeducational, or
clinical ADHD assessments from a licensed provider — should be revisited roughly every 2–3
years from preschool through college. This is separate from the school’s IDEA triennial
reevaluation, which only governs eligibility for special education services in K-12 and has no
bearing once your student is out of the school system. Colleges are typically looking for current
medical documentation, not a copy of the school’s last evaluation. How often re-testing is
actually useful depends on the disability — dyslexia often needs more frequent data collection
to track remediation progress, while some conditions need less.
Parents are often told that once a child is diagnosed with autism, dyslexia, or ADHD, no further
testing is ever needed. This isn’t true. The diagnosis doesn’t change, but presentation does —
symptoms and impact don’t look the same at 5, 15, or 35 — and colleges want documentation
that reflects the student as they are now, not as they were in elementary school.
How to Evaluate a College’s Disability Services Office
This is the part families most consistently underestimate. Accommodations are not standardized
across colleges the way IEPs and 504 plans are within a state’s K-12 system. When touring or
researching schools, treat the disability services office as its own line item, not an afterthought:
● What’s the approval process and timeline? Some offices turn around accommodation
letters in days; others take weeks, especially during add/drop when demand spikes.
● Is there a structured LD/ADHD support program, or purely accommodations (extended
time, note-taking, etc.) with no additional coaching or structure?
● What do accommodations actually cover? Extended time is common; reduced course
load counting as full-time status, priority registration, distraction-reduced testing
environments, and access to recorded lectures vary a lot school to school.
● How does the office handle communication with professors? At some schools the office
notifies instructors directly; at others, the student hand-delivers letters to each professor
every term.
● Look at your student’s specific accommodations and how each school will provide them.
Some professors don’t allow computers in classrooms, so if your student needs a
specific accommodation — a computer, recording device, notes, or something else — be
specific about how that accommodation gets verified.
A school with a strong academic reputation can still have a thin, slow, or under-resourced
disability services office. Ask direct questions before applying, not after enrolling — most offices
will do a phone consult with a prospective family.
There are also tiers of support, and some schools actively market to students with disabilities
the same way they market to students interested in art or engineering. Auburn’s SKILL program,
the University of Denver’s Learning Effectiveness Program (LEP), and the University of
Arizona’s SALT Center are examples of fee-based, structured coaching programs layered on
top of standard accommodations — worth researching if your student needs more than a basic
accommodation letter provides.
Executive Function: The Skill Nobody Grades
High school has built-in structure — parents, teachers, and case managers scaffolding time
management, organization, and follow-through. College removes almost all of it overnight. For a
student with ADHD, this is often the actual variable that determines whether accommodations
even get used.
Before senior year ends, work on:
● Calendaring — using a planner or digital calendar independently, because the student
built the habit, not because a parent set the reminder. Google Calendar or Microsoft
Calendar is a reasonable default since most of the world runs on one or the other.
● Emailing professors and disability services directly, in their own voice, without a
parent drafting it.
● An accountability system (body-doubling, study groups, check-ins) that doesn’t
depend on someone else initiating it.
● Self-advocacy conversations, practiced out loud — asking for what they need is a skill,
and it’s uncomfortable the first several times.
● Basic adult life skills — writing a check, mailing a letter, changing a tire, renewing a
passport. Things they’ll need to do alone.
Some campuses offer ADHD or executive function coaching as a paid add-on outside the
disability office, and private coaching (remote or in-person) is also an option. If your student’s
plan leans heavily on structure they haven’t had to build themselves yet, budget for this in year
one.
Medication & Healthcare Logistics for College Students with ADHD
If your student takes stimulant medication, plan the logistics before move-in, not after:
● Establish care with a prescriber near campus, or confirm telehealth continuation is
workable across state lines (controlled substance telehealth rules vary by state and have
changed post-pandemic).
● Get your student enrolled in health insurance — most colleges require it and will
auto-enroll students in a school plan if they don’t waive it with proof of existing coverage.
● Understand your pharmacy’s refill and transfer process well before the first refill is due.
● If TRICARE is your coverage, confirm in-network prescribers and pharmacies near the
specific campus before your student leaves.
Medical and Financial Power of Attorney at 18
Once your child turns 18, you have no automatic legal right to their medical information,
financial accounts, or educational records — regardless of disability, and regardless of whether
you’re still claiming them as a dependent. FERPA transfers education-record rights to the
student at 18 or upon enrollment in a postsecondary institution, and HIPAA does the same for
medical information. Without a signed release or Power of Attorney, a college or hospital can
lawfully tell you nothing.
Get a Medical POA and a Financial POA in place before your student leaves for campus.
Services like Mama Bear Legal Forms offer templates for this, and military-connected families
can get these drafted at no cost through their installation’s JAG legal assistance office.
The One-Page Summary Every Student Should Bring
Before your student leaves for campus, help them put together a single document — not for the
disability office file, but for themselves — that summarizes:
● Diagnosis, in plain language
● What accommodations they’re approved for, and why each one helps them specifically
● Which strategies have actually worked for them, and which haven’t
● A script for the first conversation with disability services and with a professor
● An email template for notifying each professor, every semester, with a copy of the
approved accommodation letter attached
10-Step Checklist: College Prep for Students with ADHD/LD
- Schedule an updated medical evaluation (private psychoeducational,
neuropsychological, or ADHD-specific assessment from a licensed provider — not the
school’s IDEA reevaluation) if the most recent one is more than 2–3 years old, or
predates a significant change in symptoms or diagnosis. - Pull the current IEP or 504 plan and read the present-levels data, not just the goals —
know exactly where your student stands academically right now. - Build a target college list and pull up each school’s disability services office page directly
— don’t rely on general reputation or rankings. - Call or email each target school’s disability office and ask what documentation they
require and how far back it can date. - Confirm whether any target schools offer a structured, fee-based LD/ADHD support
program (like SKILL, LEP, or SALT) versus accommodations-only, and whether that fits
your student’s needs and budget. - Start handing communication over to your student — have them email teachers, case
managers, or providers directly instead of you doing it for them. - Practice self-advocacy conversations out loud — a mock conversation with disability
services or a professor, run a few times before it’s real. - Set up an independent calendar system (Google or Microsoft) your student manages
themselves, with zero parent-set reminders. - Line up a prescriber near each likely campus (or confirm cross-state telehealth is viable)
if your student takes medication, and check TRICARE or insurance network coverage for
that area. - Draft Medical and Financial Powers of Attorney to have signed and ready before your
student turns 18 or leaves for campus — whichever comes first.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does an IEP transfer to college? No. IEPs are a K-12 entitlement under IDEA and end when a
student graduates with a regular diploma. Nothing automatically converts to a college
accommodation plan — the student has to self-disclose and provide documentation to the
college’s disability services office.
What is a 504 plan in college? Colleges don’t issue “504 plans” the way K-12 schools do.
Instead, they provide accommodation plans under Section 504 and the ADA, based on
documentation the student submits. The legal protection continues, but the process is
self-advocacy-based, not automatically provided. A 504 plan document CAN be used to show
need for support or accommodations. Again, it’s the school’s right to choose how they
implement 504 and ADA law.
What documentation do I need for college disability accommodations? It varies by school.
Common documents include prior IEPs or 504 plans, neuropsychological or psychoeducational
evaluations, and letters from treating providers. Always confirm requirements directly with each
target school’s disability services office.
Do I still have access to my child’s records once they turn 18? Not automatically. FERPA
and HIPAA both transfer rights to the student at 18 (or upon college enrollment). Parents need a
signed release or Power of Attorney to access medical or educational information.
What’s the difference between IDEA and ADA/504 protections? IDEA (K-12) guarantees
FAPE — an outcome-based standard focused on progress. ADA/504 (college) guarantee
reasonable accommodations for access — not a particular academic outcome. It’s a shift from
an entitlement model to a self-advocacy model.