About this activity
Eight questions about the support system that replaces school services: who do you contact at a college for accommodations and what is that office called; what documentation do you need and where do you get a copy before you graduate; an IEP does not follow you to college, what replaces it; draft the first email to a disability services office; what are you not required to disclose to an employer. Most students learn all of this after they needed it.
How to use it in a session
Get the documentation card done, not just discussed. A copy of the current evaluation, obtained before graduation, is the single most practical outcome available from this board, and it becomes much harder to obtain afterwards. Draft the email for real rather than in the abstract. The not-required-to-disclose question is worth its own conversation, since students often over-disclose out of a habit formed in school. Twenty minutes covers half the board properly.
What to listen for
Watch whether the student can explain what changed. School services are provided; post-secondary accommodations are requested, and a student who does not know that will wait for something that never arrives. Notice how they explain their needs in the thirty-second card — over-explaining a diagnosis is the common pattern, and the effective version names the barrier and the accommodation.
Carrying it home
Families can help with the documentation. Obtaining and keeping a copy of the current evaluation before graduation is an administrative task with a deadline, and it is easy to miss.
Questions
- What grades is this for?
- Eleventh and twelfth, in the window where documentation can still be obtained through school.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all eight tasks are free to use.
- Does an IEP transfer to college?
- No. Post-secondary institutions provide accommodations on request under different law, and the student has to initiate it and supply documentation — which is why getting a copy before graduation matters.