What's the difference between an IEP and 504 plan? A teacher’s explanation #172
What’s the difference between an IEP and a 504 plan?
While many kids with ADHD do well in school, a much greater percentage struggle to excel. The system is complicated and confusing. The first step is understanding what your options are. In public schools in the US, there are both 504 plans and IEPs (Individualized Education Programs) to help students with disabilities struggle less.
Today I’m inviting you into an ADHD coaching call with a mom who asked for help in understanding how to help her son who seems to be doing okay so far… but what about when he doesn’t?
While we usually focus on you, the mom, in your coaching call, we often we will discuss your kids because they are who made you a mom!
Because I have worked in both public and private middle schools before I became a mom, I want to share with you a simple explanation on the difference between an IEP and a 504 plan. Plus I’m including my two cents on when is a good time to seek out these accommodations for your child.
How often have you thought "I don't have to worry about that yet", only to be caught off guard when that project, event, or meeting sneaks up on you a few weeks later, and you're not ready!? Let's change that with this free ADHD Strategy Guide: My Secret to Overcoming Time Blindness.
Patricia Sung 00:02
Are you overwhelmed by motherhood and barely keeping your head above water? Are you confused and frustrated by how all the other moms make it look so easy. You can figure out how to manage the chaos in your mind, your home, or your family. I get your mama, parenting with ADHD is hard. Here is your permission slip to let go of the Pinterest worthy visions of organization and structure fit for everyone else. Let's do life like our brains do life creatively, lovingly, and with all our might. When we embrace who we are and how our brains work, we can figure out how to live our lives successfully, and in turn, lead our families well, at the end of the day, we just want to be good moms. but spoiler alert, you are already a great mom. ADHD does not mean you're doomed to be a hot mess mama, you can rewrite your story from shame spiral to success story. And I'll be right here beside you to cheer you on. Welcome to motherhood in ADHD.
Patricia Sung 01:08
Hey there successful mama. It's your friend Patricia said. Today's review of the week comes from Roxy 1234 called Love this podcast, listening to your podcasts has changed how I look at parenting, you make me feel like I'm normal. And I can do it. Your weekend getaway gave me permission and the nerve to ask for a night away, I would have loved to have gone on your retreat for being from Canada. It was far and financially not attainable. I did however, ask a friend to crash at her place the night of her birthday party to get away and do something for myself just so you know you are changing and inspiring lives. Good job, Mama. Keep up the great work. Yay, Roxy, I'm so proud of you for getting away for the day and putting yourself on the priority list. Obviously, I want every single mom who listens to the podcast to come on the retreat with me. But to know that even if you're not able to do it right now that you still figured out how to make the concept work for you in where you are in life right now. I'm just like, whoa, so excited for you. And thank you for letting me know, it just warms my heart, Mama, if you have not read the podcast, please go over to your app, hit the five stars. And leave me a little note to know that you're there on the other side. Because that is what keeps me going. today. A little bit different of a setup.
Patricia Sung 02:24
What I wanted to do is a couple weeks ago, I was talking to one of my clients. And normally we work on stuff for you as the mom. But obviously that includes understanding things for your kids as well, because that's you know, our main job as moms is helping our kids out. And the mom that I was coaching had some questions about prepping for parent teacher conferences, in that she has a son who has ADHD but is doing pretty well, but yet just entered Middle School. And so even though he's done really well in school in the past, like we all know that middle school is a lot harder than Elementary. And she's like, I'm not quite sure what to talk to you about the teachers because like he's not struggling yet. But I know that like we're probably close at some point, it's going to be hard. She has an older son. So she like she knows the deal. And she's like, I just want to make sure that I'm preparing him well and have everything ready to go so that if he is struggling, like what do I do? And so we were walking through like, what kind of questions to ask the teachers what kind of expectations you want to set for like, Hey, will you let me know when this happens? Because I'm worried like, yes, he's doing okay. But obviously Middle School is a lot harder. Let me know if these things happen. And one of the things we talked about is that although he has a diagnosis for ADHD, he doesn't have any kind of accommodation setup, because he's been doing okay, so far. And this is my advice always, is that, yes, your kid might not need them now. But when things start to go poorly, it's a lot harder to try to figure out what's going to work when you're already in panic mode when things are already going poorly. So it's much better to figure out what are the things that work well for your kid.
Patricia Sung 04:03
Now, when things are okay, then when the doodoo hits the fan, and then like nobody's in a good space because everyone's stressed your kids floundering you just want to find the answer right now. And it's way harder to do that when the things are falling apart. So part of our discussion was understanding like, what's the difference between a 504 and an IEP because those are two different accommodation setups and making sure that her son has what he needs. So what I'm going to do in just a moment is play for you that clip where I explained the difference between 504 and IEP s because they are two very different things. And then that way you can have this information for when you're working with your kids and knowing like what especially when they're younger, like this is a great time, especially if they're doing okay in school like yes, not every ADHD kid has a point in school where they're doing okay, some of us struggle from day one. Some of us don't struggle until later on. If you have a kid who's doing okay at the beginning, still figure out what They need now what are the tools and strategies that work well for them so that when things get hard, you can.
Patricia Sung 05:06
Now here we are a peek into a coaching session with me when we're talking about understanding something that you may not be familiar with. While most of the coaching sessions are me asking questions to you, because you have to figure out what works for you, right? It's not me telling you what to do. I'm your guide, and I'm your source of information when you need it. But this is one of those rare times where I'm like, let me go ahead and talk for a minute because I want to make sure that you have what you need to make the best decision. And I was after I said, I was like, deeming this was a really good explanation of the two because a lot of times people get like, kind of in the weeds and it gets overwhelming. It's like, that's okay, that was a good one. I'm gonna share this and she's like, You go right ahead. So you won't hear the mom that I'm coaching because I didn't like ask her ahead of time, if that was okay for me to like, put that session on. And I didn't want her to like have to like, go back and be like, Ooh, did I say anything I shouldn't have. So I just pulled her out of that. It's just me talking. But I want you to understand one, this information for if you need it for your kid into the kind of tailored information that you're getting in a coaching situation with me is that we're leaning into exactly what you need on that day, and helping you feel like the most competent, most successful version of you as a person that we can.
Patricia Sung 06:21
Are you constantly scrambling to get things done, you never seem to have quite enough time to do it all. And it feels like you're drinking from a firehose, and then you get mad at yourself, because you should have been ready because you knew about that birthday party or that field trip or that vacation for a long time now, and yet somehow, you still aren't ready. As ADHD moms, we spend a lot of time living reactively you're playing Whack a Mole throughout the day dealing with one emergency or surprise after another. You feel like you don't even have time to catch your breath. This is a really stressful way to live every day. The hard part is it we live in the now not the not now. And all those things the birthday party, the vacation the field trip, they're all not now until suddenly, they are now how do you move those things from now to now before they are emergency. Now, by doing some proactive planning. Every month, I look ahead at what's coming up so that my brain recognizes that it's coming soon it brings the knot now into the now temporarily, I'm sharing this tried and true strategy with you. So head over to my website, Patricia sung.com. Forward slash month ahead. It's all one word month ahead lowercase letters, and you can download it for free how, in just 1015 minutes, you can walk through what's coming up and help your brain move from reactive to proactive, this 10 or fatigue and activity once a month saves future me tons of hours of stress and panic. And I want that for you too. So go to my website, Patricia sung.com forward slash month ahead and grab your free ADHD friendly strategy, which is my secret on how I overcome time blindness and lower your stress a whole bunch future you will thank you so much in a couple of weeks. So go grab it now. patriciasung.com/monthahead. monthahead.
Patricia Sung 08:18
Okay, so Sneak Peek welcome into one of my coaching client sessions with an anonymous mama do extra unless they feel like it's needed or you push for it. So you're the main advocate for him. And so I would say bring it up every time you can to check and see how he's doing. And like emphasizing like the moment you see something, please let me know. So that way you can catch it beforehand. And all school districts are different depending on your state legislature. But yeah, definitely like check with the counselor to they're the ones who are like in charge of tracking a lot of that, or in some districts if it's not the counselor, sometimes there is like a special ed department fear person. So like one of those two people, depending on how your district is setup would be the one that you want to check with and see like, what are your requirements for like an IEP, they're only going to do if he's not meeting expectations, because that's where you're actually changing the expectation to match where the child is a 504 means your expectations are still the same, but we're modifying how they get there.
Patricia Sung 09:19
So if you're saying he's doing okay, he's most likely not going to qualify for an IEP but a 504 you can do even for kids, because a lot of times people just assume that if you have a learning disability, you are also stupid, you can't be smart with a learning disability is the general idea. So they're gonna say like, oh, he doesn't need that because he's so smart. And that's not true. Like, just because he's picking it up. The like, what I emphasize is like, what are the what is he doing that you can't see, to be able to meet that expectation? Which for like, a lot of kids ends up being like the anxiety and the panic. So yes, they're meeting the expectation and on the inside, they're dying. What can we do to make it easier to meet that expectation, so it's not a hardship on them to get there. So that's where the 504 comes in, because that guarantees that he can sit at the front, or get a copy of the notes from the teacher afterwards. And it's not only on him to take the notes, or sometimes they do like a notes from another student, but some people don't like that, because then it's like, well, now that other kid knows that that person is struggling, it's like, um, so if you can get it from the teacher, that would be better. Or, you know, like the test taking accommodations of having extra time, or having someone there to read the questions aloud, if they're struggling with, you know, their reading comprehension for sure, like they do better auditorially. So 504 are all the ways to make this, the methods easier to still hit the same goal, probably 50 different ideas that you can do, depending on how he learns best. So looking at, you know, if he's struggling with something, what is that thing? And then how can you make it easier to attain that.
Patricia Sung 10:57
So for example, like, if you struggle, like for me, I really struggle taking in information auditorially. So like, if it's all lecture, and I don't have anything written, I'm not going to remember what you said, I have to take notes. But the problem is, when I take notes, my brains flip flopping between Listen, write it down, listen, write it down. And it's whenever I'm listening, I'm not writing. And when I'm writing, I'm not listening. So that flip flop means I'm picking up half the information, it's getting written down, and then I missed half of it while I was writing, and then I went back and forth, I'm only picking up half the information in the process for students who don't auditory learning, while having a copy of the notes means like, not that you should not take notes. But that if you have like a copy of the notes, you can then add in your thoughts. But it's not writing down all the thing, right? Like almost like a mad libs is fine to where it's like, you're still responsible for filling in 20% of it. But at the same time, also having the ability of like, if I missed that piece of information, can I still go get it? How can I find that? But like, the good part is like if you have that, like notes, or notes, Mad Libs, and you can compare it to your book, it's like, okay, then you can still get by. So just depends on like, for some students that madlibs is more stressful, because then they're like, oh, did I miss that. And so it took like, it truly is like the plan for your kid and how they learn best. And when at the school, they'll say we have these 10 things to choose from pick three. And that doesn't necessarily mean that that's really what the best thing that your campaigns so yeah, advocate advocate advocate. Yeah. And then the good part about sorting that out in middle schools that hopefully you got a good plan in place for winning gets to high school, because like even really smart kids will be able to transition from elementary to middle fairly well. But then either middle to high school gets hard or high school to college gets hurt. So isn't many skills that you guys can get in place.
Patricia Sung 12:50
Now when he's doing well. So it's easier to master the like study skills, because the material isn't that hard. He's putting more effort into the study skills than the material. When he gets to the point where the material is hard, then his study skills are already there. And he can focus on the material and not the study skills. Yeah, getting him that support when he doesn't need it is really hard because you're fighting them for it. But then he has it in place for when he does need it. Because most kids will need it at some point. When that is you don't know. But it's a lot harder to figure it out when they're struggling than when they've got it. So another good thing to ask the teachers too is what is the best way for him to ask for help, so that he doesn't feel like he's embarrassed in front of the class like, like, what's the sneaky way to ask for help? So he doesn't have to feel American? Should he come at study hall? Can he like if he doesn't want to ask in the middle of class like yes, obviously we want him to but there's going to be some point where like, if he doesn't feel comfortable, can he hit send an email? Can he come at lunch at like, what's the option? So much hope that helps you understand what your child needs, whether they need a 504 or an IEP? And that you feel confident knowing going in? What to start to research to find what matters most for your child. What are the supports that they need? That you feel confident that this is what my kiddo needs? Let me start my research there. Okay. Have an awesome week successful mama. For more resources, classes and community head over to my website. motherhoodinadhd.com