Educational Accommodations for Students With Disabilities: Two Equity-Related Concerns

Educational accommodations are frequently given to students with disabilities. For instance, students might be given a copy of class notes or provided additional time to complete a test. One purpose of accommodations is to improve educational equity, putting all students on equal footing. However, research on current accommodations practices raises two distinct equity-related concerns. First, students from privileged backgrounds are more likely to receive certain accommodations even without adequate evidence of need; this can provide an unfair boost in performance and widen gaps among students. Second, when students from less privileged backgrounds are given accommodations, the incentive for schools to provide academic remediation, compensatory strategies, and coping skills is lessened, leaving these students in a worse position when accommodations are not available outside of educational settings. Implications for practice are discussed.

Critical Perspectives on Disability Documentation in Higher Education: Current Trends and Observations

The role of disability documentation in establishing eligibility for disability status, student support services, and accommodations in higher education has waxed and waned in the last two decades. At one time, referral for evaluation and the resulting disability documentation were essential prerequisites in establishing postsecondary accommodations. Appropriate documentation describing the disability resulted in legal protections (National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities, 2007). Without this documentation, individuals were ineligible for a host of work-related and educational accommodations and support services. But now legal, research-based, and educational perspectives are informing a new approach to the use and importance of disability documentation. This article presents critical and differing perspectives which build on observed trends and practices in disability documentation requirements and accommodation decision-making.

Management of Auditory Processing Difficulties Virtually: A Case Study

Difficulty hearing in the presence of background noise is a common complaint heard by audiologists. This can be accompanied by additional difficulty in classrooms and other difficult listening situations. This was recently exacerbated by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) shutdowns and the accompanying mask usage and virtual meetings. This article describes one such patient seen during the recent shutdown. This patient reported difficulty hearing during her college coursework for her music performance major. She was an established otology patient with an extensive middle ear history including multiple surgeries. During the shutdown, she virtually consulted with the auditory processing disorders clinic at the recommendation of her otologist to discuss her college-related difficulty and pursue educational accommodations. Challenges and solutions for seeing this patient and other, similar patients virtually are discussed as well as a review of how this patient proceeded and how the knowledge gained from this patient could apply to others with similar concerns.

How Pediatric Hematologic and Oncologic Patients Experienced Virtual Learning During COVID-19: Importance of Amplifying the Family Voice for Informing Future Recommendations

Background: With medical advancements in the detection and treatment of pediatric oncologic and hematologic disorders, survival and life expectancy rates continue to improve. However, the treatments themselves have been linked to long-term cognitive issues (e.g., attention, working memory, and executive functioning). These difficulties have particular salience to academic achievement and often necessitate educational accommodations to support learning. However, these plans are designed for the traditional school environment and may be insufficient for virtual learning. The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceived impact of COVID-19 in the context of virtual learning for children with hematologic or oncologic disorders to inform the development of appropriate recommendations for patients and schools this fall. Methods: Qualitative interviews assessing academic accommodations and COVID-19 adjustments to virtual learning were conducted separately with participants and their guardians by phone. Medical histories were obtained via electronic health record. Results: Thirty children (Mage=12.8 years, SD=1.4 years) with status post cancer treatment (n=17), sickle cell disease (n=11), or neurofibromatosis type 1 (n=2), with an IEP (n=15) or 504-plan (n=15) in place prior to COVID-19. During virtual learning, children reported a lack of interaction with teachers or other resource help. Guardians felt pressured to assist with schoolwork without sufficient support or qualifications. Anecdotally, families still expressed gratitude to their schools and teachers, revealing overall low expectations for virtual learning. Potential Impact: This pediatric population faces unique education challenges, specific to neurocognitive impairment secondary to their chronic health conditions. Unsurprisingly, families perceived that their educational needs were not met during virtual learning related to COVID-19. To prevent the cascading effect of insufficiently addressed academic needs, the inclusion of family’s perceived experiences is critical for informing individual recommendations and the Indiana Department of Education broadly during the transition back to school this fall, both in the physical and virtual classrooms.

De-Implementing Inappropriate Accommodations Practices

Educational accommodations, which alter the manner in which instruction or assessments are administered, are often an appropriate part of a student’s academic program. However, accommodations are frequently overused and have significant limitations. De-implementing inappropriate accommodations is a complex task, but one made easier through a clear understanding of the factors that cause and maintain those accommodations practices. In the present paper, we use the logic of functional behavioral assessment to better understand why evaluators and school staff recommend and provide inappropriate accommodations. We identify problematic background beliefs, specific antecedents, and reinforcing consequences for inappropriate accommodations, before describing several effective strategies for de-implementing those accommodations.

Disability Identification and Educational Accommodations: Lessons From the 2019 Admissions Scandal

A recent, widely publicized scandal involved students who obtained fraudulent diagnoses of learning disabilities in an effort to get accommodations on college admissions tests. Although the exact circumstances of the scandal are unusual, the methods used to obtain diagnoses and accommodations illustrate widespread problems with current policies. These problems include certain disability identification methods that overemphasize performance on diagnostic tests, a lack of attention to the unfair advantages that unwarranted accommodations can provide, and a lack of commonly used guidelines for making accommodations decisions based on credible, objective data. The scandal was a rare consequence of these problems, but far more frequent consequences involve unequal treatment of students from different backgrounds and test scores that fail to reflect actual student skill levels.

Eating and Feeding Disorders

Eating disorders, which encompass a broad spectrum of diagnoses, typically emerge in adolescence or young adulthood. This chapter focuses on eating or food-related disorders and malnutrition in children and adolescents. The chapter provides a general description of eating disorders in children and adolescents, assessment and treatment considerations, and resources for school-based clinicians who work with children and adolescents diagnosed with an eating disorder. Information about common school-related concerns, such as cognitive difficulties, frequent school absences, nutritional intake, and engagement in physical activities, is included, with specific strategies for the school-based professional to adopt when working with students with eating disorders. The chapter concludes with a list of helpful resources and a framework for guiding the development of an individualized education plan or 504 plan for students who need additional educational accommodations or interventions.

Race and Disability on Perception on Relative Fairness of Postsecondary Educational Accommodations

The purpose of the current study was to explore how students at a Midwestern University rated the fairness of a student with a disability receiving specific educational accommodations when controlling for the race of the student requesting the accommodation. We were also interested in exploring the impact of disability status and educational level of the student participants on their perception of how fair it would be for the student with the disability in the scenario to receive specific educational accommodations. A logistic regression analysis revealed that the race of the hypothetical student with a disability was not a significant predictor of whether a student deserved educational accommodations. Additionally, participants that disclosed that they had a disability thought the student in the disability-related case scenarios were more deserving of accommodations compared to participants that did not disclose having a disability.