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I am curious if a school is legally or otherwise obligated to make accomodations for a student to get around at school when the student has an injury?
The school my kids go to does not have handicap access for the top floors. There are not currently any students or teachers that are impacted by this. There are ramps to get in the building and an elevator that goes to the basement level from the first floor, but nothing that goes to the second or third floors.
My son has two badly scraped knees, and stitches. He can not walk up stairs well at all and his classroom is on the third floor. He is due to go back to school tomorrow and there is no way he can walk up and down the stairs quickly and/or when there are lots of kids at the same time. He also will not be able to carry all of his books (the kids in certain grades have to transport all of their books all day, but this is a different issue!).
I emailed the school and they may work with me. However, I am trying to find out what the laws and obligations are in my son's temporary injury situation. I don't want him to miss a week of school and I also do not want him to get hurt on the stairs or open his stitches.
I depends if the school is public or private. If private, no, they are not legally obligated. If public, I think it depends on the district/state. I know that public schools in my county are required to accommodate an injured student. I'm not sure if that is statewide, but it probably is. However, I have no idea if that is a federal law.
In public school, this student needs a 504 Service Agreement. Contact your school and tell them that they need to provide access to you child and that you want this written into a legal document called a 504(after the law.) If they don't want to cooperate, first tell them that you believe that a 504 is appropriate(do it in person not by email) and that you will contact an attorney, if they won't cooperate. This is not a big thing and is easy solved. But the 504 guarantees you access both in the workplace and in a public school. I think even private schools have to respond to 504's since its an access law.
I'm responsible for the 504's in my schools(I'm busy doing make-up testing right now which is the reason I have time to write this to you.) I don't enjoy doing 504's but its the law and its the way that you can get such services provided that have to have BY LAW.
Federal law requires that schools make reasonable accommodation for disabilities, both temporary and permanent. Such accommodations are spelled out in a '504' document as mentioned above. But I think most people would be reluctant to define scraped knees as a disability, even temporary. Your son will likely be healed before a 504 could even be drafted let alone implemented. Schools are usually pretty accommodating though. Kids get hurt so often, they have to be more flexible than legal definitions of disability.
You will probably have the best luck if you obtain a written statement from your son's doctor describing what physical activity he needs to avoid and for how long and then approach the school with a proposal for how they can accommodate his needs. For example you might request that your son be allowed to leave class 5 minutes early to get a head start on the stairs, or be given an additional ten minutes between classes without being marked tardy. You might ask if your son can use a classroom copy of his textbooks or be assigned a buddy to carry his books to the next classroom for him. The proposal should have an expiration date, based on the doctor's recommendations, of when your son can resume normal activity.
There is a magic number of weeks involved. If the child is on crutches for two weeks, this is not enough time for a 504, and yes, a doctor's not would be a better choice.
I wasn't sure how long the disability was going to exist.
I think (I hope) that my son will only need help this week.
The buddy and the five minute early ideas are great. I am hoping the school will work with us. I know scraped knees do not sound that serious, but my son got around better when he had to wear a walking cast compared to this. With the walking cast (boot) he could use his knees and the boot was visible (with this injury, nobody can tell except that my son is walking very slowly and strangely!).
Thanks for the 504 information as well. Although it won't be needed for this situation, I did not know much about 504's and it is useful to understand how it works.
I ran into a similar situation during high school; for the week that it took my knees to heal my teachers didn't mind me arriving a bit late when walking up the three flights of stairs to the school's top floor. My parents or the administration were never were involved; I just told my teachers that I'd hurt my knees and we informally worked it out (I didn't even have stitches, and my bruises were covered by my pants; they just took my word for it.). I'm sure the teachers have dealt with this before. Temporary injuries are common, especially with so many kids playing sports; they might have some suggestions of their own based on what has worked or not worked in the past.
Last edited by uptown_urbanist; 04-30-2010 at 10:53 PM..
Reason: worded it wrong -- administration not involved, teachers were!
I don't think there is enough time for a 504. When I was in high school I had a sprained ankle and I could use the ramps but not when they were crowded with other students. The school gave me a pass that allowed me to leave class 5 minutes early to get where I needed to go. I was allowed to take a friend with me because I could not carry my books and use the crutches.
I would try to work it out with the school. Go there in person. I bet they will work with you.
The school did work with me, although they were a little grumpy that I had my own ideas. The plan is a good one though.
I was mostly wanting to know the rules just in case. When my son had to wear the boot earlier this year, and I emailed the teacher about whether she could keep an eye on him to make sure he could handle the stairs with all the kids around, she did not even answer my email! (my son managed OK though)
I ran into a similar situation during high school; for the week that it took my knees to heal my teachers didn't mind me arriving a bit late when walking up the three flights of stairs to the school's top floor. My parents or teachers never were involved; I just told my teachers that I'd hurt my knees and we informally worked it out (I didn't even have stitches, and my bruises were covered by my pants; they just took my word for it.). I'm sure the teachers have dealt with this before. Temporary injuries are common, especially with so many kids playing sports; they might have some suggestions of their own based on what has worked or not worked in the past.
That's exactly what I had to deal with when I taught public school. One student injured her ACL playing basketball and my class was moved from our usual classroom to one where she was not required to climb the stairs. My principal initiated the change and then informed me of it via a letter in my mailbox, which makes me think that it was required by law for the student to be accommodated but did not involve a 504, which usually entails an ongoing/permanent disability.
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