Similar to the IDEA’s Child Find duty, Section 504 also requires school districts to evaluate students suspected of having a disability and being in need of accommodations.1 Additionally, parents can request an evaluation if they suspect their child may have a disability. This request does not have to be in writing, but best practice is to make the request in writing to document it in case a dispute arises later.2 The law does not require that the request be submitted to a specific person, but it can be helpful to copy the request to multiple school officials, including officials responsible for 504 evaluations at both the school and district level, such as the district and/or school 504 Coordinator, the chair of the School Building Level Committee (SBLC) at the school, and/or the school principal.
Before initiating a 504 evaluation, the school district must get the parent’s consent.3 Unlike the IDEA, Section 504 does not lay out specific evaluation procedures, timelines, or assessments,4 but school districts do have to establish evaluation standards and procedures. Under the Section 504 regulations, a school district must evaluate the child in all suspected areas of need and all tests and other evaluation materials used must be administered by trained personnel, be validated for the specific purpose for which they are used, and draw upon information from a variety of sources.5 The information sources relevant to a 504 evaluation include aptitude and achievement tests, teacher recommendations, physical condition, social or cultural background, and adaptive behavior.6 This also includes information from non-school sources, such as medical or mental health diagnoses. The evaluation procedures school districts adopt must ensure that information obtained from all such sources is documented and carefully considered and that the placement decision is made by a group of persons, including persons knowledgeable about the child, the meaning of the evaluation data, and the placement options.7 School districts may but do not have to use the same evaluation procedures for 504 Plan eligibility that they use to determine eligibility for special education.8
After a student is found eligible, Section 504 requires that school districts conduct periodic reevaluations of students with disabilities, but does not specify how often.9 In Louisiana, school districts follow the same three-year reevaluation timeline set out in the IDEA. Additionally, Section 504 requires a reevaluation before any significant change in placement, including exclusionary discipline of more than 10 school days.10 OCR also considers the transfer of a student from one type of program to another, such as moving a student from a general education class to a self-contained special education class or terminating or significantly reducing a related service, to be a significant change in placement.11
- 134 C.F.R. § 104.35(a).
- 2Requesting an evaluation via email is an easy way of preserving a record of the evaluation request.
- 3U.S. Dep’t of Educ., Off. for Civ. Rts., Parent and Educator Resource Guide to Section 504 in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools 19 (2016).
- 4If a student who undergoes an evaluation under the IDEA is found ineligible under the IDEA, the IDEA evaluation may be used to qualify the student under Section 504 if eligibility criteria are met.
- 534 C.F.R. § 104.35(b).
- 6Id. § 104.35(c).
- 7Id.
- 8In practice, 504 evaluations often merely consist of a one-page document listing the student’s medical diagnoses, grades, and/or standardized test scores. If a parent is seeking thorough academic, cognitive, and/or behavioral testing, it may be helpful to request a special education evaluation under IDEA as discussed in Section 4.2.3. Even if the student does not qualify under IDEA, the testing done in the evaluation may qualify them under Section 504.
- 934 C.F.R. § 104.35(d).
- 10Id. § 104.35(a). For a further discussion of disciplinary protections under Section 504, see Section 8.5.
- 11U.S. Dep’t of Educ., Off. for Civ. Rts., Parent and Educator Resource Guide to Section 504 in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools 22–23 (2016).