That's a tough one. Has your daughter been evaluated? If ADHD symptoms “substantially limit” a child’s ability to learn, he is entitled to Section 504 services.

According to this article about securing accommodations: "If the team decides your child doesn't need special ed, for example, you're entitled to appeal your case in a 'due-process' hearing - a legal proceeding that often requires legal representation for the family, testimony from independent experts, and a review of meeting transcripts, test scores, and other documents." You may need to employ a educational attorney.

You can find a basic rundown about your child's educational rights here. This article about ADHD and Learning Disabilities: Educational Rights and Accommodations is also helpful.

If it comes down to it, you may need to wait until your child enters middle school and appeal directly to your child's teachers. It may take more time and energy to talk with each teacher, but it might be easier than fighting the school board.

I hope this helps. Dena

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This was the story of our lives for the past 10 years. My very bright daughter with ADD received informal accommodations from compassionate, outstanding teachers throughout elementary school and middle school but she was considered "too successful" to qualify for Section 504. When she got to high school, the unstructured environment threw her completely for a loop and she spent every six week grading period barely keeping her head above water (often having failing grades right up to the day before final grades were due)! It was extremely painful to watch this very bright child begin to sink into depression and lose confidence in her abilities.

The high school teachers continued to work with us to provide much more help than we ever could have imagined. The problem with this was that since none of these accommodations were "official" and since nothing was being documented in her permanent record, we were faced with the fact that we would have to go through this same process every year of high school. Moreover, in researching what kind of accommodations she would receive in college or even for college entrance exams, we found out that there could be NONE if she had not had documented help in high school. I was at my wits end!

After multiple meetings with teachers and the grade-level principal, I finally gave up requesting their help and went to the Section 504 coordinator for the school district. It turns out that the interpretation of the law pertaining to 504 had recently changed. School districts must now consider how a child would perform without the help of medication (since so many parents choose not to medicate their ADD children) when deciding who is eligible for Section 504. This was just the change we needed to get our daughter the documentation that she needed to follow her beyond high school.

With the persisitence of many professionals, she ended up with an academic acheivement award for her freshman year. We have the following to thank: a social worker who honed her time management and study skills every week and who recognized that she was depressed from all of her academic challenges; a pediatric neurologist and his nurse practitioner who worked tirelessly to find the right balance of new ADD medications (with her changing hormones) and who were willing to treat her depression as well; school teachers who were invested in helping this very bright child become a successful high school student; and a private music teacher who did not push her beyond her abilities when everything else was falling apart but offered love and understanding in the difficult times.

The key to parents is PERSISTENCE! Remember that you are your child's best advocate. No one is as invested in their future as you are. Do what you have to help your child succeed!

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What do the other indicators besides grades say? Grades are often subjective and poor measures of achievement.

Special Education/IEPs have a high threshold for determining who qualifies.

However, grades alone is never a disqualifier for a 504. Who merely need to show that the disability could impact learning. I have links to specific DOE policies on ADHD and 504 on my blog. http://askdreric-schoolpsychologist.blogspot.com/2010/03/adhd-medical-diagnosis-or-can-school.html

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I had the same problem with my daughter in elementary school. The school would talk about how she was distracted and didn't get work completed, but never offered to test her. I hired a psychologist on my own who diagnosed her with ADHD and took the diagnosis to school. The school had to offer her a 504 plan then.

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