College Admissions for a Student with Special Need

[momfromma]

blog.foxspecialedlaw.com/2011/09/-college-admissions-for-a-student-with-special-needs-waiting-to-exhalefor-four-years-by-marilyn-gree.html

College Admissions for a Student with Special Needs: Waiting to Exhale—for Four Years by Marilyn Green-Rebnord

Anyone who has helped a teenager through the college selection process knows what an extraordinary stressful time it can be. The competition among the students (and their parents!) is breathtaking. My husband and I found it extremely difficult with our oldest son, who is a strong, “traditional” student. But to navigate the college selection process with a special needs student is a whole different ball game with an entirely different bucket list of worries and “to-do’s.”
...
I’m sure you’ve heard tales of those mythical students who are disciplined and can get through the application process relatively on their own. I will tell you that our older son was just such a student. But our youngest . . . oh well . . . Actually, the hardest part of the application process was deciding whether or not our son should disclose his disability. (Students are not required to do so; colleges are of course not allowed to discriminate against students who do identify their special needs.) Although our high school transition coordinator recommends always disclosing, we were on a fence. But during one particularly interminable college recruiting program (again, our students are always happy, the sun is always shining, etc), I reacted to the admission rep’s statements about respecting and seeking diversity. I figured we would call them on it. I suggested, and my husband and son agreed, to disclose the disability. If a school were going to be bothered by the disability, it wasn’t a school our son should be attending anyway. Consequently, my son wrote about his diagnosis in his Common Application essay, and I’m happy to report that the schools didn’t blink.
...

[healthy11]

I know Marilyn Green-Rebnord through one of the local special ed support groups that I belong to, but all these years I didn't realize she had older children, because (naturally) the focus at special ed meetings is always on the kids who have special needs!

It certainly does help when one has had kids go though the college admissions process before, yet it's still more challenging when you're concerned about a student who "learns differently." I'm glad that it sounds like her son has found a university that can meet his needs...I wonder if it's one of the same ones that other Millermoms have been looking at, like Lesley, or ? (I'll send her an email, and if I hear back, I'll let you know!)

[jisp]

As for disclosing a disability, I am with momfromma, If a school was going to have issues with my son's disability then chances are it was not a school for him. But in our case it was particularly tricky as we somehow had to explain my son's lack of schooling and grades and unusual transcript to the colleges he was applying to, and the only way we could do that was to fully disclose all that had happened to him. Our psychiatrist wrote a very eloquent letter explaining that the challenges our son had and also that our son was subjected to some particularly bad decisions by adults and organizations who were responsible for him. It was a letter that both raised warning signs for the college and promoted our son as being a unique candidate with a lot of potential. Fortunately the colleges responded positively and let him in. (with the exception of Brandeis but that fits )

[healthy11]

jisp, momfromma was quoting Marilyn Green-Rebnord when she posted, "I suggested, and my husband and son agreed, to disclose the disability. If a school were going to be bothered by the disability, it wasn’t a school our son should be attending anyway. "

In any case, I concur with that approach. Of course, even though my son did disclose everything to the first small private college he attended, it didn't guarantee that they could meet his very basic accommodation needs, after their experienced Disability Coordinator quit and the university hired a clueless replacement. As some of us know, getting accepted to a college is only the first step; I hope it works out well for Ms. Green-Rebnord's son, and for everyone else's students with special needs, too!

[momfromma]

Thanks, healthy... For some reason, I always have problems with

when I do it by hand.

I concur with the writer that I think it is better to explain at least somewhat the disability. If the school does not like the idea of a disability, better to know it upfront. My son seems to think the same thing as he asked his res teacher to write one of the recommendations. I just hope he is not wrong on that and that the teacher will give an honest but encouraging assessment. But it is a lot more stressing than ds1, there is no question about that.

[dhfl143]

Loved the read. Thanks for posting!

[teacherabc]

I agree that if a school is bothered, then it is not a place where an individual with a disability wants to go anyway. HP has a math teacher that did not want to hear about his disability--said that he has 40 minutes for each test and it is going to essentially be impossible to do anything about it...basically tough luck. While he should not be able to get away with this, and ultimately, probably couldn't, he decided, and I agreed that it would be better to switch to a teacher that he knows has a different attitude. Usually the attitude is one of inflexibility and intolerance all around and who needs that? I don't think it is much different with a school.

[healthy11]

Teacherabc, I'm not sure I understand what you're saying..."Usually the attitude is one of inflexibility and intolerance all around and who needs that? I don't think it is much different with a school."

From my perspective, there ARE often variations in levels of understanding, flexibility and tolerance for students with disabilities from school to school, as well as instructor to instructor, even in schools that claim to be sensitive to students with special needs. If you start off in a school that is NOT expressing a willingness to accommodate students with disabilities, then there is less likelihood of individual teachers knowing how and what to do for special needs kids, because they probably don't get any training sessions, etc.

[healthy11]

I did hear back from Marilyn Green-Rebnord, and if anyone is interested, send me a private message and I can let you know which school her son is at. She says it's only been a couple of weeks, but "so far, so good!"

[jisp]

FYI,
I have a good friend who is a psychologist/counselor for undergraduates at UMass Amherst. She was telling me that she feels (and she is the mother of a special needs child herself) that the LD services at UMass are outstanding and that if a child is registered with the disability office they can have a notetaker for no extra money.

[shawbridge]

I think one should not disclose prior to acceptance unless it is necessary to explain the applicant's record. I think one should disclose post-acceptance while choosing which school to attend. At that point, you can get beyond the normal lip service that schools pay to different kinds of mind to find out what kinds of reform they'd really give.

My son had to disclose and was admitted to quite a few schools, including fairly elite schools. But, I think some of his wait-lists and rejections may have resulted from the disclosure. They can get someone with the same stats/record as your kid but who doesn't have any possible staff-draining person.

[zippity]

My son is in a CA university and I can't tell you how absolutely fantastic it was to meet the disability advisor last spring. Upon my son signing on we made our first trip to establish disability. It was a piece of cake compared to the numerous school districts and fights we had. I was so very impressed. They got him, after all he is a computer nerd and fits the profile of one. I am eager to here how it pans out but they couldn't have been more helpful.

[2remem]

I believe in full disclosure. I do not want my DS going to a school that does not want him the way he is and for what he can offer.

Disclosure for DS will be important as his whole academic life has not been traditional and may show his independence and love of learning. It will also explain why most likely he will not have EC's and how his grades are reflective of the school, not his ability. Example: He home schooled himself in 7th & 8th grade except for my help in math.

I am hoping all the extra classes he's taking independently that his school is giving full credit for and 2 semesters of accelerated college foreign language will counteract his GPA dips in HS on college application.

Shawbridge- I have been follow and trying to catch up on a long, long thread on CollegeConfidential that you are a part of. Surprised when I saw you here. I am lurking on that thread as I don't want to jump to the end. Too much great info that cannot be skipped. Sill have 400 pages to go and I am 307 pages in!

[michellea]

My daughter referred to discovering her LD's in her college essay. She felt that it was an opportunity to explain the turn around in transcript from after her freshman year. It also allowed her to highlight some of the excellent skills, maturity and self knowledge that she brings to the table.

We'll see what happens. She hit the "send" button on 5 applications last Thursday and hopes to hear back in December. If she doesn't get in to any of these schools, I suppose she can re-address her essay.

Generally speaking, I'm for disclosure.

[caniacfan]

Michellea, my dd also wrote about her learning disabilities/ADHD in her college essays. Not only was she accepted to four of the five colleges she applied to (was deferred at the 5th), two of the colleges commented positively to her on her essay in their acceptance letter. She is receiving accommodations at her college (no questions asked, we just had to send in her 504 Plan from h.s. and her neuropsych report from her most recent testing) and she is thriving. She would not have wanted to apply to a school that wouldn't have been accommodating and she wanted all schools to know upfront. Like you said your dd did, her essays showed how she handled her disabilities and made a somewhat difficult situation positive. So I agree, I think disclosing the disabilities can be a good thing especially if it explains inconsistencies on a high school transcript. Good luck to your dd!

[shawbridge]

2remem, when ShawSon was younger, I got an immense amount of help from schwablearning. I was sorry to see that go. While he has not in any way eliminated his LDs, he has developed strategies for dealing with them. He chose a college with no distribution requirements so that he doesn't have to take courses with 400 pages of reading per week. He's doing phenomenally well studying math, economics and psychology (this semester, he's taking probability, advanced econometrics (a graduate school level course), game theory, and abnormal psychology and auditing a drawing class). Given where he was (and we were) when I started coming to schwablearning for information, I feel quite blessed that ShawSon is where he is, although the combination of his character (his self-narrative is about overcoming adversity) and his sheer desire to win, his giftedness, and the support my wife and I and her cousin have been able to give him (negotiating for partial homeschooling, getting extra time on tests including SATs/ACTs and in college) have contributed a lot to success. On College Confidential, I've transitioned largely to non-LD threads. I pop in here every once in a while because I think folks like healthy really helped me when we were just struggling to figure out what to do with a kid who was exhausted from reading, got headaches from writing, was always tired and frequently sick, etc. If I see a place I can contribute what little I've picked up, I do, but my experience is pretty idiosyncratic -- ShawSon is dyslexic, ADHD, speech delayed and extraordinarily smart and driven while ShawD is high IQ and ADHD/anxious but not driven in the same way.

Good luck with your Ds college apps, 2remem, michellea and caniacfan.

My son and daughter both get help from disabilities offices. ShawSon's school has been fabulous and ShawD's has done everything we asked (which is largely extra time, assigning a peer mentor and some subject tutors). As in 2remem's son's situation, ShawSon had to disclose to explain the odd record (e.g., partial homeschooling). ShawD improved each year and she didn't disclose. As I said above, I wouldn't disclose in the application unless it were necessary. However, I would meet with the disabilities offices when your kid is deciding where to go. In both cases, we met with disabilities offices prior to deciding and got specific information about what they would and wouldn't do. Some are going to be helpful and some are going to be tough to deal with. That made my son's choice easy, between an Ivy that was not going to be helpful and a highly-ranked LAC that has bent over backwards to be helpful.

[healthy11]

Shawbridge, it's always good to "see" you back here! Thank you for your kind words. I'm glad that I was able to help you and your son a few years ago. It's wonderful to hear that he's thriving. After I gave up posting on Greatschools due to their broken promises about how they'd develop their site, I thought about contributing at places like CollegeConfidential, but honestly, I don't have the time. I seem to have a "never-ending" stream of elderly relatives who need assistance, so between my part-time "paying" job and family responsibilities, Millermom is enough for now!

[momfromma]

My son chose to have his resource teacher write one of his recommendations, so it will make things clear.

He also chose to write an essay on how being able to connect with the material he reads (music in the case of the essay) helped him understand better the material.

I am amazed by the quantity of brochures and emails he receives. I cannot remember having received that many for his brother 4 years ago. I wonder if it is a sign of economic times. Unfortunately, we had a discussion with him and we pretty much decided to drop Dean and Curry. We do not want him to apply to colleges to be accepted and find afterwards that we cannot pay for it.

[healthy11]

"We do not want him to apply to colleges to be accepted and find afterwards that we cannot pay for it."

I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I think it's better to see what doors may open, instead of assuming they're locked and not even trying them.

If you've talked with your son about your financial limitations, (he doesn't need to know every detail) and you tell him "up front" that you've budgeted X amount of money for his schooling, then let him apply. See whether or not he's admitted, and if so, what scholarship and grant money might be available.

I realize math isn't your son's strongest subject, but you might make up a simple spreadsheet of all the colleges he gets accepted to, that shows the cost of tuition, room, and board, and add a little extra for transportation costs to/from (he'd have to consider that, even if he were commuting on a daily basis from home) then subtract any award moneys, and let him see where things stand. It's good practice for having a budget when he lives on his own someday, because he needs to consider what he can afford, versus what's unreasonable. (That type of logic has already been useful for my son...he understood that moving into an apartment involves more than just the monthly rent, because there are utility costs, food considerations, even parking permit fees because he's an off-campus student, etc. He might have wanted to live in a new building, but sometimes you have to compromise on what you can afford. Still, it didn't hurt him to look at different buildings before deciding.)

[shawbridge]

momfroma, I agree with healthy as usual. Some schools are very generous with aid and end up costing less than state schools. I don't know about Dean and Curry, but it is worth investigating.

healthy, life is sometimes crazy. ShawD is doing well so far, with a bad score in chemistry the only blot on the record so far, but is having big roommate problems. She won't tell us about them. But, she told her HS BFF who told her mother who told us when we came over for dinner. The roommate is apparently mean to ShawD (lots of cutting remarks). We asked ShawD about them and she is trying to arrange a room swap with a girl down the hall. The university administrations said, "You can't do this informally" though I would never have told them so now they have to apply through official channels.

[shawbridge]

Sorry. Pressed post too soon. At times, like with your elderly relatives, one has to step up, which no doubt you are doing.

[2remem]

Shawbridge-
I am following the post on CollegeConfidential that pertains to Hillel's and such. I just requested an IEE for my son so that we can better help him as he is starting to really struggle.

Shawbridge posted:
"we were just struggling to figure out what to do with a kid who was exhausted from reading, got headaches from writing, was always tired and frequently sick, etc."

We are dealing with the same thing right now, but add anxiety too. I am just beginning to talk to the school about going back to partial homeschooling. DS home schooled all of 7th & 8th and did phenomenally well. Went to general high school for the interaction and because the home school program we were part of would require him to be online in class setting a lot of kids. He did a few a few and could not hear or comprehend beyond the noise.

Regardless, he will do one semester of a Latin online over winter break, concurrent college for foreign language in the spring and 3 classes online this summer. His choice plus on college class possibly. That will get all graduation requirements out of the way and more except 2 yrs of English and 1 history class(he'll take online following summer). He would rather go to the local college that transfers into USC & UCLA easily for junior & senior year of high school. Does not mean that is where he'll go though. He just can't perform in a HS setting and the stress. He has experienced college classes and his tutor even told us with the way he works and grasps the concepts, he'll do better in college. i am still not so sure yet.

Shawbridge, it was nice to see you on both forums and I am already working on what to do for college as with my son(10th grade), last minute scrambling will just put him over the edge. Gosh knows that with his LD's (still not sure exactly what), we need to find the right fit for him to thrive.

Healthy11
You know I'm glad you're here. You've helped me so much already. And yes, though a tab with CollegeConfidential is open, I have spent more time reading posts and comments here than even doing my job. Thankfully we are self employed, but I make up for by working late into the night too.

momfromma
I did not think about getting a resource teacher to write. That is a great idea as they have the best insight to the child besides parents. I will probably use that for us too.

We are hoping that next summer we can combine a business trip with visiting a few college campuses and find out about LD services.

[healthy11]

2remem, in another discussion, I believe you said that your son's 504 accommodation plan included extended time for homework and even the ACT/SAT. I'm not sure how the school can say that, because they aren't the oversight/approval entities for accommodations on either of the college entrance tests...Perhaps they're saying they will assist in filling out the paperwork?

Will your son be taking the PLAN or PSAT/NMSQT this year? If so, maybe you want to "start the ball rolling" now, to try and get extended time for them, as well, and if the school balks, or doesn't know how to proceed, at least you'll know now, and hopefully have time to address the issues before your son takes the ACT/SAT and the scores really count!

[2remem]

Healthy11-
I has him take the practice PSAT and the PSAT this year. I wanted to gauge how he does not just on the testing, but on time too. The practice PSAT he was unable to finish 4 math problems. Not sure and neither is he on the PSAT itself. We did not have much time to ask for the accommodations, but next spring he is going to take a SAT subject test so I plan to apply for extended time.

I believe the school is saying they need to make sure they apply for the time. That's what I got out of this last meeting that they will really push to get the time extension for him. We will probably need help with the written portion also.

Funny....it is actually written into the 504 that he is to get extended time on SAT/ACT and any other college entrance exam. Surprisingly, he has more problems on class tests then on state tests. Go figure. I guess at least if his grades are not where they should be, but SAT/ACT scores are high, he'll have a fighting chance hopefully with full disclosure.

[shawbridge]

2remem, both our kids found that, with extra time, the ACT was somewhat easier, although ShawSon managed to blaze on both. ShawSon did not take a foreign language in HS and is not taking one in college. His brain is not wired for foreign languages -- he doesn't really hear the sounds. He had to disclose in order to explain that, among other things. I was able to do so as the supervisor of the homeschooling part of his education, which enabled me to put a good spin on things. I think my disclosure was a lot better than his was/would have been.

[healthy11]

2remem, my son (highly gifted, but with ADHD, dyslexia and dysgraphia) also did far better on "standardized" tests, including the ACT/SAT, than on class tests. I believe part of it is that on class tests, he's often required to "show all his work" whereas on Scantron tests, he can come to conclusions in his own way, no matter how "unconventional" his approach may be. In addition, because his handwriting is sloppy and full of misspellings, I think classroom teachers have more problem reading what he puts down, than when a computer just deciphers a bubble he's filled in.

My son refused to take any "prep classes" or read any books/study guides for the SAT/ACT, and he wouldn't even look at the "word of the day" that some websites give. His school had all sophomores take both the PLAN and PSAT/NMSQT, and he scored equivalently on them, without extended time. Since he was always interested in majoring in engineering, we decided to focus on the ACT, since it has both math and science portions, which we figured could offset his weaker English and reading skills. (The SAT does not have a separate science section.)

We applied for the accommodation of extended time (time and a half), but we had to appeal twice in order to finally get approval. My son conceded to take the ACT early in his Junior year, to get a "baseline," and some practice regarding what the test would consist of. Except for the optional writing portion, he did quite well, with English being his weakest area, as we expected. Surprisingly, his reading was stronger than anticipated, perhaps because he did have the extended time to re-read the passages and refer back to them while answering the questions, rather than having to do it from memory.

Anyway, to make a long story short, my son took the ACT twice more (spring of Jr. year, when everyone else did, and then again in fall of his Senior year) and each time he did a bit better, probably due more to familiarity with the format. He ended up with a 32 composite, even though his English score never got above 25, and he was accepted to all 6 colleges he applied to. (As I've mentioned in other discussions, he ended up transferring last year to a different university, one that wasn't even on his initial list, but he seems happier now, even though it will take him an extra year to graduate because they wouldn't accept all his prior credits, including some from classes he'd taken at our community college when he was still in high school...)

[2remem]

Shawbridge- How far in advance did you request the accommodations?

I know that unless DS is enrolled in a class, he will never crack open a book for the SAT/ACT even if he wants to. It will never happen. Sounds silly, but I have a few Nintendo DS games that are for SAT/ACT practice. That I will be able to get him to do.
My son somehow does well with languages, but hated Spanish and after nearly a whole semester, he dropped it. Once he has a block, that's it, he's done. DS is weaker in math though grasps the concepts and does most math in his head which is why he does lousy in school with it. Can't show work and the teacher gives a 2"x2" area for each problem. Oh yeah...a kid with visual/motor problems will never do well on these tests. No place for work, cannot line up problem and literally, he either writes just the answer or fills the whole area to the point of overlapping and in both instances, gets marked down. Hence Scantron type tests are good for him too. Discuss the problems 1 on 1 and he can do them all near perfect.

The writing part is what worries me as he have visual motor issues and writing in general is so hard for him. Getting it on paper just makes it that much harder. He is a whiz in English and actually can't wait for college as his accommodations will be more fitting and followed than HS.
DS is not highly gifted, but at the gifted line. But then again, with all his issues, who knows what he really is? Higher, lower, we don't care as long as we figure out how to help him. He will be retest soon, I hope and we'll have a better picture.

Good to know that he did better each time Cannot believe he could not transfer credits. That doesn't happen too often. Glad your son is happy though. That's an integral part of learning.

I checked the colleges here already in terms of credits and most of the classes transfer to USC or UCLA so I assume other will take them too. There are some that do not transfer, but just a few. DS's foreign language was used for 2 yrs. of HS credit and will be used for college too.

Good to know that ACT might be a better choice. For colleges, do you need to send in all the scores on the SAT's & ACT's if you take them early like sophomore year and early junior year? I know some schools want all the scores and kind of implied "all" and some just late junior and senior year.

[jisp]

2remem,
I am a bit of a rebel when it comes to standardized tests. But I got to this place because of our son. I have three kids. None of them do well on standardized tests. My daughter did well enough with minimal coaching. But my middle son who is a very complicated kid did not do well. He took the test once, with plenty of accommodations. But he had a panic attack during the test (the school actually had to call us to come to help our son). After that he refused to take the SAT test again.

At the same time that he was taking the SAT test our son was enrolled in college classes and doing solid A- work.

Our son applied to college with almost a semester worth of college grades, his lousy scores, almost no extracurricular activities (at least not ones our son was willing to list), a sparse report card from HS with more incompletes and D's and F's then actual grades and letters of recommendations from people who knew him and knew what challenges he had overcome. Although he did not get into his first choice school he got in everywhere else and landed at a school that is just right for him.

Now my youngest is a applying to college. And because of our experience with our middle son I decided to not waste any of his precious time and energy studying or taking the SAT or ACT or any other test. He is a musician and needs his time for practice. He took the SAT test once with only minimal tutoring. He did well enough. His SAT scores will not hurt his chances of getting in to the schools he wants to get into. Nor will they cause anyone to go WOW. But in my opinion getting high SAT scores means little and is not worth the time or energy that it might take to get there.

[bros]

Apply as far in advance as you can for standardized testing accommodations. It took me about a year to get accommodations for the SATs, because my case manager was a complete and utter idiot.

[healthy11]

I concur with bros that it's best to apply as far in advance as you can for test accommodations, because you may have to appeal. On the other hand, if you don't have a "formal diagnosis" yet, and there's ongoing testing, plus your son is only a sophomore, it's probably best to wait awhile longer.

The College Board (which oversees the SAT) and the ACT authorities each have different "levels" of people who review documentation that's submitted for accommodations. In simplistic terms, the first layer of reviewers are pretty much clerical people, who just look to be sure all the boxes on the forms are complete, supporting documentation is attached, and testing is current... They'll send a "denial of accommodations letter" if something is missing, and then you'll need to appeal.

From what I understand, the "second level" of reviewers, who look at appeals, are typically people who work in the education field (I know a former high school teacher, who now coaches students, and she's on the College Board Review Panel) and they'll spend more time looking at the details of a student's accommodation request. She said it's important that students who request particular accommodations on the SAT be using similar accommodations in the classroom. If you want extended time, but don't already have it in school, forget it. They're similarly suspicious of students with "recent diagnoses" who don't have a previous "history of need."

If, for some reason, your accommodation request is again denied, you can appeal again, and at the "third level" there are usually professionals like psychologists who can better interpret actual test results and other supporting documentation.

There have been other discussions on the topic of ACT/SAT accommodations, and you might want to read some of them: millermom.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=college&thread=12200&page=1

You have always been able to decide which ACT test results get sent to colleges (although if you don't opt to have scores sent at the time you register for the test, there's a small additional fee to have them sent later) and my understanding is that the SAT recently adopted a similar policy. They used to automatically send results of all previous attempts, but maybe your son's high school counselor can clarify whether that's still occurring.