Video 4: How Can Section 504 & 504 Plans Help My Child in School?

Hello! My name is Dr. Tom Power. I'm a psychologist, director of the Center for Management of ADHD at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and co-director of the PASS Study. I am presenting the fourth in a series of five videos for the PASS Study at Children's Hospital. The topic of this presentation is helping your child perform well at school.

Why is success in school so important? Well, it’s important for a lot of reasons. It promotes academic achievement, which can prepare students for learning throughout life and career achievement. It promotes self-control of behavior and emotions, so children can work well in teams and cope with stress, and it teaches social skills, so children can learn to relate well to peers and adults.

How does ADHD have an effect on children in school? Well, it has an effect in many ways. It can contribute to poor school performance, difficulty learning academic skills, trouble controlling behavior, trouble controlling emotions such as anger, anxiety, and happiness, difficulty relating with teachers, and difficulty relating with classmates. 

So, here is a brief activity for you to work on. Please take a few moments to think about what you can do to help your child perform well in school.

Helping your child perform well in school involves a lot of different activities. Two things I would like to focus on are first, establishing a good relationship with the teacher. You can do this by reaching out to the teacher at the start of the school year, make sure the teacher knows how to get in touch with you, communicate with the teacher on a regular basis, work on keeping a a positive relationship, let the teacher know when he or she does something helpful for your child, collaborate with school professionals to develop an individualized plan for your child, work with the school to use the plan and change the plan when needed. 

It's important to know your child’s rights in school. Civil rights law, in particular Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, prevents individuals with disabilities, including ADHD, from being discriminated against. Students with ADHD who have difficulty with school are entitled to protection under Section 504. The main protection in a 504 plan is an individualized plan that can help students perform better in school.

504 plans are individualized plans. To find out how to set up a 504 plan, we encourage you to contact the school principal or counselor. Please note that these are plans that are written down, and they should be reviewed by both parents and school professionals. They include both accommodations and interventions. 

Accommodations are changes to the classroom environment to help students perform better. Examples of these would include moving the child’s seat to the front of the classroom, so that the child is better able to pay attention, allowing the child to take certain tests in a quiet area with an aide and allowing the child to answer the questions by speaking instead of writing.

Interventions are strategies to improve academic performance and behavior, such as working with the teacher to identify one or two child behaviors to improve, praising and rewarding the student for performing these target behaviors, and having the teacher inform parents how well the child is doing in school each day with a focus on the positive.

So let's review! School success is important for success in life. ADHD can make it difficult for children to perform well in school. Parents can help their children by working effectively with teachers. Students with ADHD are entitled to an individualized 504 plan. 504 plans include changes to the classroom environment and strategies to improve identified target behaviors. There is so much that you as a parent or caregiver can do to help your children perform well in school! The next video will discuss additional specialized strategies that are available for some children in school.