Differences between high school and college

The transition from high school to college brings opportunities for growth and challenge. For students with disabilities, this includes learning to manage his/her disability accommodations, which can be very different from his/her experience in high school. The chart below is a general guideline for understanding the difference between high school and college accommodations.

High School	College
The school district is responsible for evaluating and documenting student's disability	The student is responsible for getting an evaluation to document disability
Free evaluation of disability	Student's responsibility to pay for and get evaluation
The district develops Individual Education Plan (IEP)	Student identifies accommodation needs
The school automatically incorporates accommodations into the student's daily schedule once a disability is documented	The student must request accommodations each semester
Parents advocate for their child	Students are their own advocates
Parents are notified and must give permission for any decisions regarding their child	Parents are not notified unless the student grants permission for that information to be released
Fundamental alternations to program of study permitted as identified on IEP	The accommodations may not alter the fundamental nature of course or impose an undue burden on an institution