Paper Example. Differences in 504 Plan and IEP Qualification

The world of education and, especially special education, is filled with jargon and acronyms. These aspects sometimes make it difficult to understand and navigate. Some of the vital documents that families need to understand are 504 plans and IEPs. To reduce the confusion that both can lead to, these documents are both essential information and accommodations for children who have special needs. However, they are vastly different. Both 04 plans and Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) are meant to offer formal help to k-12 students who struggle in schools. They have similarities in some ways though they harbor some differences. This paper highlights some of the reasons they tend to be different and why one can qualify for either of the documents.

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To start with, the 504 Plan can be defined as a plan or blueprint for schools on how they can support and remove barriers of disable children. However, IEP is a plan or blueprint for special education experience for a child at the school. It provides special education that is specialized and related services that meet any child’s unique needs (Goldston & Downey, 2012). The services are not provided at the cost of the family. Nevertheless, the 504 Plan provides changes and services to those in the learning environment to allow special needs students to study with their peers. The services are also not provided at the costs of the students.

The differences in qualifications for both aspects of special education differ. Two different requirements are needed to get both treatments of special education. For IEP, the first requirement is that the child should have one or more of the thirteen listed disabilities in the IDEA. There are some of the special challenges listed by the law, including autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, and others. Another qualification is that the disability needs to affect the education performance of the child or their learning ability and their general education curriculum benefits. That is, the child must need special education from the school of specialized instruction for them to make progress. These need to be verified with authorities.

On the other hand, the qualification or requirements for being in the 504 Plan include the fact that the child should have any disability. There is a range of different struggles in schools that a child has to be faced with for them to have such a qualification. Also, the disability has to show interfere with the ability of the child to learn in an education classroom that provides general learning without specialized treatments for those with disabilities. It is worth noting that Section 504 has a more comprehensive disability definition than the IDEA (Deiner, 2013). Here, it is stated that the given disability has to curtail one or more basic activities in life. Some of these include thinking, communicating, reading, and learning. As such, it is common to find that a child might not qualify for an IEP program doing so in the 504 Plan.

The children who can qualify for IEPS are, in most cases, considered to be students with disabilities and, hence, get automatic protection in the 504 Plan. It happens even if they have not been designated to be eligible under section 504. However, the IEP students are rarely involved in tussles or challenges concerning Section 504. Students qualifying under 504 Plan are only meant to qualify for the plans and, with some modifications, can meet the requirements for the other programs. These programs have differences, though not too much.

References

Deiner, P. (2013). Inclusive early childhood education. Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Goldston, M., & Downey, L. (2012). Your Science Classroom: Becoming an Elementary. SAGE Publications.