How long did the 504 Plan take???

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Farmwife

Farmwife

Joined
Apr 28, 2012
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Grace's K4 schooling has finished. :dance: Hello summer break.

Next school year will start regular Kindergarten at her school and we will need a 504 plan in place.

How long did it take to get everything in place for the 504 plan for your child?

Plus, when your dealing with multiple dx's (IBD, JIA and Asthma) do you need separate plans for each?

:shifty:I hope I'm not starting to late.:yfaint:
 
Just one. It took a week for us. I request an appointment, it was given next day. I took all the papers I had, Labs, mri's, anything I had in case they will ask. I also gave them a copy from the internet explaining what the illness is, causes, symptoms an treatment. It will be great if you can get a letter from the Doctors about what special accommodations your child will need. Like use of elevator, extra book in class, back pack with wheels, extra time with homework. First appointment I had was with the principal, then with teachers, principal and school nurse. Then they send the paper work to the district. I hope it goes well.
 
Do not give the school medical records period.
These are protected by hippa and can be used against not quailfiying later.
Also do not grant permission for the school to speak to the doctors.
All correspondence should go through you.

Request an evaluation now to determine if she qualifies for a 504 plan now.
The letter needs to be written and sent to the district 504 coordinator .
The district office can tell you who that is
Most have up to 60 school days to respond.
As part of your evaluation request give the school letters from your specialists stating her dx , a 504 is needed and accommodations she will need in school.
One 504 per kid covers all illnesses.

Most "do " 504 evaluations/plans at the sane time the week before or a few days before school.
Once summer hits very few people will call you back.
Also copy the school nurse on the request.


Good luck
 
Took about two weeks for us. M's rheumatologist wrote a letter and then when she was diagnosed with IBD we revised her 504 plan to include stopping the clock on tests if she has to go to the bathroom etc. CCFA has a great template.

For JIA - stop the clock for breaks to walk around during tests, use of a computer if her hands/elbows are bothering her, extra set of textbooks, use of an elevator if possible, modified PE (or gets to sit out if not well), extensions on assignments/tests, absences for doctor's appointments etc.
 
I sent an email to A's teacher requesting a 504 and she forwarded that email to the ESE Teacher (she also serves as the 504 coordinator for the school). Unfortunately it took us several months to get the 504 in place because I had to keep canceling due to appointments, procedures, etc. Our county has a medical form that A's physician filled out prior to the meeting and that was essentially all we needed to determine eligibility. The actual meeting was very quick and easy. People present were myself, A's teacher, the ESE Teacher, and the Assistant Principal.

I will say that each schools process may be a tad different. The school that I work at (my kids attend a different school) has a 504 coordinator who handles tons of 504s and she is extremely efficient. Our meetings include the classroom teacher, the parent, the 504 coordinator and the guidance counselor. If an emergency health plan needs to be put in place that can be done at the same time. In that case the district nurse would need to be present. Our school nurse is never involved in 504s or health plans.
 
I don't have a 504 for Crohn's, but do for 2 of my kids for other reasons. My Little Penguin is exactly correct about the procedure. My school district utilized the full 60 days and it took awhile to get 504 into place for both of my kids. I hope your school district is quicker, other folks who responded had better luck. Good luck!
 
Penguin- Interesting about the 504 covering all illnesses. My potential Crohn's daughter already has a 504 in place for other issues. So would I just need to work with the district to ammend for Crohn's if she has it?
 
Yes Bareket, at least in our school district, you can just amend the current 504 plan to add in accommodations for crohn's. For us, I just emailed the 504 coordinator and she made the changes, we signed new forms and it was done. It was the easiest thing I had done in a long time. Hope it will be painless for you too.
 
Yep same here
DS had a 504 for years due to food allergies - just a call/doc letter and it was updated before our next meeting.
 
Since C was missing so if school right before dx, the school called an emergency meeting and set up a temporary situation to cover all absences, give extra time on work, par back work and allow for complete access to bathrooms, along with some other stuff.

Then right after dx we had the doc write the letter and had the plan implemented within a week I think, marrying and all. I think the hardest part was trying to set a time all teachers could attend due to their involvement in extra curricular and sports/academic activities.
 
We have multiple dx in one plan and ours took about a week. Be sure to review it each year as needs change, particularly before entering middle school.
 
Took us about a week as well, from the first call to set up meeting which was scheduled for a couple of days later and 1 day to write up and finalize. We did emergency 504 in 8th grade to add a bunch of stuff and had that done in just a couple of days.
Jack is switching high schools back to his old school district this next year and they have already called me to ask if it is okay to put his 504 from 8th grade back into place for the start of school and we will meet within the first couple of weeks just to make sure we do not need to add anything.
You most likely would not hear anything if school is out for summer but I would call as soon as the office opens before school starts and get to work on it.
 
In 5th grade my son had missed close to a month of school. The principal approached me and suggested it. He had one constructed from the school district and then we sat down to see if I needed to add anything or change the wording, etc. It was like a week I think. Now every year I have a meeting with the councelor and we add or change things. In our case, the teachers weigh in if they see a need for something to be included that benefits my kid.
 
Thanks everyone:hug:

I'm going to start collecting letters from the individual doctors with their recommendations as to what Grace will need to be put in place for this plan.

Yes to also meeting them a week before school starts.

Another question for those with a 504 plan,
when your kids stays home sick because of a flare up,
do you have to get a medical note from the GI or even the GP to give to the school?
I'm just thinking if the school will want "proof" of why he/she is not there.
 
Now that's M is in high school we always do, mostly because they're much stricter about attendance and losing credit. In middle school we didn't - I just made sure the teachers all knew why she was missing school and all her teachers were very understanding about it.
 
Elementary and Jr. High just had one letter from GI stating may miss many days of school due to symptoms and cyclical nature of disease. This last year in high school yes they asked if we would just in case we ever had to fight for a credit.
 
We got a Letter from the Gi but the school wouldn't add it to the 504.
Gi has stated to just call the office and a medical note will be sent .
So far only one missed day this school year due to ibd
 
We had a leeter from GI placed in C's 504. It has worked fine but GI nurse as always put a Dr note in his med file each time in case we need it.

Since C is mainly independent study he doesn't really have absences, if he was to miss a lab or project presentation, it would revert to his letter. It has been such a relief to not have to worry about the school issue. He had the opportunity to work through breaks and summer and graduate early but we opted out...I mean, c'mon it's summer! Ha!
 
Took about a week. Amended annually. We still bring MD note when we miss school for visit and/hospitalization but it doesn't go "with 504". They handle that documentation like they would for any other kid. Her plan, however, allows for more absences.

J.
 
I always get letters from the GI to excuse absences. It makes the office staff and nurse happy. But as with AZMOM, it doesn't go with the 504. Last January when my son was doing poorly and he was put on picc line before surgery and he was doing school thru the laptop (our teachers set it up for him to be virtually in class) I had to get a letter from the GI for "homebound study" That was required from our district and did go with the 504 requirements. That was so certain teachers could get reimbursed by the state for tutoring him after hours I believe.
 
Someone explain the high school credit thing... so, there may be issues with earning HS credit if too much school is missed? I'm thinking we might need a letter as well then. Does anyone have specific language that I can give our GI?
 
Too many unexcused abscences .
Medical excuses do not count towards the number of days allowed to be excused by the state. Each state is different. So if the maximum number of excused days is 30 and your child has 30 excuse notes signed by parents then they are fine but once the child misses 31 days those become unexcused whether you have a parent note or note.
You can have unlimited medical notes .
Also having a note from the GI similar to the ccfa school brochure explaining the reasoning of the disease and abscences helps.

We use medical notes for DS plus a letter .
 
Exactly what MLP said -- M (if she didn't have a 504 plan) would lose credit after 18 unexcused absences. In her case we were told if she had a 504 plan no one would bother her about absences (as long as they were documented with doctor's letters -- which was a bit of a pain this year since she missed so much school).

I don't remember the specific language in her 504 plan but I'm sure your GI's office deals with this for many kids with IBD or other chronic illnesses.
 
Ok, that makes sense. We do have a 504 documenting everything and I once asked about all his absences in middle school and was told not to worry because his record is "flagged medical".

As of today, I am officially the mother of a high schooler! When did that happen??? If you have little ones, don't blink!
 
Welcome to the club Mehita (mother's of high schoolers) Yes to what everyone else is saying Jack missed one class 28 days over the last year and would have lost credit if not for having doctors notes / hospital notes for 25 of them. In junior high all I had to say was he was sick with crohn's symptoms and they would mark the absence as medical. Guess maybe it was because it was new high school and they didn't really know us, but seems like I was forever calling the doctors office to fax over a note because I always forgot.
 
http://www.ccfa.org/resources/template-section-504-plan.html
You have this one, right? I requested an appt (which I got fairly quickly). I pared down the template to a page and a half (when she was in k), although I was still met with a bit of resistance. (She has been healthy for two years, and they were of the mindset that they would work with me when she got sick. I explained that it would be in HER best interests if we did it before.) Try to attend an open house, though, and speak with all of her teachers. Her second year with the same gym teacher, I happened to mention to him that I met his dad (who has UC). Admin never told him that dd has Crohns and, although she is generally well, can have trouble with fatigue and is anemic. This was specifically addressed at our meeting a few weekend prior...I would personally meet with staff when possible to be sure of an anytime bathroom pass and free fatigue card. I can't wait until I bring it up at *this* years meeting! ;)
 

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