College & beyond: the postsecondary cliff

• K-12 runs on IDEA, an education law. It puts the burden on the school: find the student, evaluate them, write a plan, deliver services, measure progress, and involve you. Nothing has to be asked for twice, in theory, because the obligation belongs to the district.
• College, training programs, and employment run on the ADA and Section 504 — civil rights laws. They prohibit discrimination and require reasonable accommodations. They do not require anyone to find your student, evaluate them, plan for them, or check whether it's working.
• The practical translation: the obligation flips from the institution to the student. Nobody at a college knows your student has a disability until the student tells them, in the right office, with documentation, and asks.
• IDEA promises success supports — specially designed instruction aimed at progress. The ADA promises access — an equal shot at the same course, not a modified course and not a guaranteed outcome.
• At 18 in most states, educational rights also transfer to the student. Even before graduation, you can be shut out of a conversation you've led for a decade unless your student signs a release (FERPA in college, HIPAA for medical).

• The IEP itself. It ends at graduation with a regular diploma, or at the state's exit age. It does not follow the student to any college and no college has to honor it.
• Child Find — the duty to identify students who might need help. Colleges have no such duty. A struggling first-year is just a struggling first-year until they self-identify.
• Specially designed instruction, modified curriculum, and modified grading. Colleges provide accommodations (extended time, notetaking, alternate format, reduced-distraction testing), not a changed course or a lowered standard.
• The team. No annual meeting, no case manager watching progress, no progress reports to you, no PWN when something is refused. If an accommodation isn't working, the student must go back and say so.
• Free evaluations. Districts evaluate at no cost; colleges generally do not, and a current evaluation can run well into four figures if you need one after the school's obligation ends.
• Your automatic seat at the table. Grades, disability records, and meetings belong to the adult student.

1. 1

   Register with the disability services office — early

   Every college has one (names vary: Disability Services, Accessibility Resources, Student Access). Registration is voluntary, confidential, and separate from admissions. Do it the summer before classes, not in week nine after a failed midterm — accommodations are generally not retroactive.

2. 2

   Gather documentation that's current and functional

   An IEP is not documentation. It may be accepted as supporting material, but most offices want a report from a qualified evaluator stating the diagnosis, how it was determined, and — the part that matters most — the functional limitations in a college setting and why the requested accommodations follow from them.

3. 3

   Get the evaluation done while school still pays

   Ask for a reevaluation in the junior year and say in writing that you want it to support postsecondary documentation, with adult-normed instruments where appropriate. Many offices want testing from within roughly three years, and psychoeducational testing from age 12 rarely holds up.

4. 4

   Request the Summary of Performance and keep it

   When eligibility ends by graduation or age, the school must provide a Summary of Performance — academic and functional performance plus recommendations for meeting postsecondary goals. It's the single most useful handoff document, and it's often produced in a rush unless you ask early and specifically.

5. 5

   Teach the ask, then hand it over

   Your student needs to be able to say, in two sentences: what their disability affects, what accommodation addresses it, and what they need from you. Practice it during senior-year IEP meetings, then let them make the disability services appointment and do the talking.

6. 6

   Open the adult-services doors that have waiting lists

   Vocational rehabilitation can fund evaluations, assistive technology, training, and job supports, and can be brought into the IEP meeting while your student is still in school. Medicaid waivers and developmental disability services can have multi-year lists — get on them years before you need them.

7. 7

   Sign the releases

   A FERPA release lets you see college records; a HIPAA release covers medical. Also decide, calmly and early, whether supported decision-making, a power of attorney, or something more is right — guardianship is not the default and is the most restrictive option.

Senior year is too late for the two things that take the longest: current documentation and adult-services waiting lists.

• Age 14–15: postsecondary goals appear in the IEP. Start naming the accommodations your student uses and why, in their own words.
• Age 16: your student attends their own meetings. Invite vocational rehabilitation. Begin using only accommodations that would actually be available in college, so nothing is a surprise.
• Junior year (16–17): request the reevaluation for postsecondary documentation. Visit disability services offices while you're touring campuses and ask what documentation they require — it varies. Apply for anything with a waiting list.
• Age 17: written notice of the transfer of rights. Decide about decision-making supports. Confirm the evaluation report is written in a form a college can use.
• Senior fall: your student practices the self-disclosure conversation. Request the Summary of Performance in writing so it isn't produced the week of graduation.
• Senior spring: collect the complete file before the district's obligation ends. Sign releases. Confirm whether a regular diploma will end eligibility, or whether staying until 21–22 fits the goal better — you generally cannot undo that choice.
• Summer before college: register with disability services, submit documentation, get the accommodation letter in hand, and have your student email each professor in week one.

• The same flip applies at work: the ADA covers employers with 15 or more employees, and the employee must disclose and request an accommodation. The Job Accommodation Network (askjan.org) offers free, confidential guidance on how to ask and what's reasonable.
• Vocational rehabilitation is the main adult funding stream for training, assistive technology, job coaching, and supported employment. Apply while your student is still in high school.
• Apprenticeships, certificate programs, and community college CTE tracks all have disability services offices too — and the documentation requirements are usually lighter than at a four-year school.
• SSI eligibility is redetermined against adult criteria at 18, and the answer can change in either direction. Look into ABLE accounts and work-incentive programs before earnings begin.