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Differences from High School to University Services
Frequently, students and parents who contact the offices and/or programs which provide services and accommodations to disabled students at a college or a university, do not realize that the services and accommodations that they were receiving through high school, will not necessarily be available at the post-secondary education level.
Elementary, middle, junior-high, and high schools must comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The differences, even if in most cases tend to be subtle, are definitely present and could result in confusion and frustration.
The purposes of IDEA when enacted (Public Law: 105-17) were:
"A. to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for employment and independent living;
B. to ensure that the rights of children with disabilities and parents of such children are protected; and
C. to assist States, localities, educational service agencies, and Federal agencies to provide for the education of all children with disabilities" (20 U.S.C. 1400).
Trying to understand the differences between ADA, Section 504 and IDEA, students and parents need to take into consideration that from K-12 the education of all children is mandatory; therefore, school districts, and States need to ensure that the guidelines set by the federal government under IDEA, are met. In other words, the States and the school districts need to ensure that they provide accommodations which will help all students, without discrimination, finish high school.
However, post-secondary education is discretionary; which means that colleges and universities need to comply with ADA, and/or Section 504. In other words, post-secondary institutions need to ensure that they provide "equal access" and "equal opportunity" to education; finishing college or university is the student's responsibility.
The best example which illustrates the difference between these two concepts is how conduct is treated at the high school level, and at the post-secondary education level. If a high school student's conduct is inappropriate, and if the misconduct is a result of the student's disability, then the student cannot be expelled under IDEA, and it is the high school's responsibility to modify the student's IEP, and include behavioral objectives that would address the misconduct.
On the other hand, if a student breaks the code of conduct of a post-secondary education institution, even if the misconduct is a result of the student's disability, s/he may be expelled because under ADA and Section 504 the student needs to "meet the academic and technical standards requisite to admission or participation in the institution's program."