(2016, December) | Useful to Parent Centers for sharing with staff, students with disabilities, families, schools, and other stakeholders.
The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Education has released the Parent and Educator Resource Guide to Section 504 in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools. The 52-page resource guide provides a broad overview of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504). The guidance describes school districts’ nondiscrimination responsibilities, including obligations to provide educational services to students with disabilities. It also outlines the steps that parents can take to ensure that their children secure all of the services they are entitled to receive.
The Section 504 Parent and Educator Resource Guide also:
- defines and provides examples to illustrate the meaning of key terms used in Section 504; and
- highlights requirements of Section 504 in the area of public elementary and secondary education, including provisions related to the identification, evaluation, and placement of students with disabilities, and procedures for handling disputes and disagreements between parents and school districts.
The guide is available online in a PDF format (651 kb), at:
https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/504-resource-guide-201612.pdf