It's easy to understand why there is so much confusion about whether colleges have to follow the IEPs or Section 504 plans that students had in high school.

If you look at the text of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the law that provides for IEPs, or at Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504), you won't find any wording that explicitly says that students' plans "expire" or come to an end when students graduate from high school (or "age out" of the system).

The services in a student's IEP and/or a high school level Section 504 Plan end when the student graduates from high school.

Colleges may use these plans to help in decision making but they are not required to follow the requirements of these plans. But this doesn't mean colleges don't offer accommodations to eligible students.

Colleges often provide the same or similar accommodations if the accommodations are typically available at the college level, such as extended time for exams and permission to use a laptop for note-taking.

Another point is that students are not guaranteed services at college simply because they had a 504 plan or IEP in high school. To receive accommodations, the college must find the student eligible for services.

Some groups of students are more likely to have difficulty obtaining accommodations in college:

* students who were not diagnosed with a learning disability but who had difficulties in high school in a specific area, such as test taking;

* students who have test anxiety (not a recognized disability);

* students who are labeled as twice-exceptional (i.e., have intellectual gifts and also diagnosed as having a learning disability) but whose lowest scores on psycho-educational or neuropsychological testing are within the Average range.