504 plan examples

Quick answer

Most 504 plans run one to three pages and list four to ten accommodations, each with a named person attached. Below are five examples, one each for ADHD, anxiety, type 1 diabetes, dyslexia, and hearing loss. Each shows the disability finding, then the accommodations in district language, then who does the work. None is a form you can file. Read what a 504 plan is first if you have not, because everything below assumes the plan changes access rather than content.

What a real 504 plan document contains

There is no federal 504 form. Nothing in 34 C.F.R. Part 104 sets a template, a page count, or a review date, so every district built its own. The plan two towns over may share nothing with yours except the number in the title.

Nine fields turn up on most of them.

• Student name, date of birth, school, grade, and student ID
• The impairment, and the major life activity it substantially limits. Districts often write only the first half
• The evaluation information the group relied on. Test scores, teacher input, medical records, attendance data
• The accommodations, one per line
• Who provides each one, and where
• The start date, and the date the group looks at the plan again
• The names and roles of the people who made the decision
• A distribution list showing which teachers get a copy
• A parent signature line

Two get skipped. The person responsible, and the review date. A line that says "extended time" with no name next to it is a line nobody owns.

The signature line is the district's. Ask what signing means where you live, because in some districts it records agreement and in others only attendance.

None of the nine is required by federal regulation. What the regulation requires is the evaluation, a group decision by people who know your child and know what the evaluation data means, and the education itself. Paperwork is how a district proves it did those.

Example 1. ADHD, seventh grade

The finding reads that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder substantially limits concentrating. That is the whole basis. There is no category to fit into, because Section 504 does not have any.

Six accommodations, on one page.

• Time and a half on in-class tests and quizzes, every subject
• Any test scheduled to run over 20 minutes is given in the counseling office
• Directions given out loud are also posted in writing the same day
• Multi-step projects broken into parts, each with its own due date, set by the teacher who assigned it
• One movement break per period, up to two minutes, on a signal the student and teacher agree on in week one
• The teacher initials the planner at the end of each class

Who does the work. Each of the seven classroom teachers, in their own room. The counselor books the testing space. The 504 coordinator sends the plan to all seven within five school days, and again when the schedule changes in January.

What the plan does not do is teach this student to keep track of his own work. If that is the real problem, somebody has to teach it, and teaching is an IEP question.

Example 2. Anxiety, tenth grade

Generalized anxiety disorder, substantially limiting concentrating and sleeping. The plan names both. A plan naming only learning invites the argument that the grades look fine, so nothing is limited.

Five accommodations.

• A pass to the counseling office the student can use without asking out loud, twice a day, with the counselor checking in at five minutes
• No cold calling. The teacher may ask privately at the start of class whether the student wants to be called on that day
• Graded presentations delivered to the teacher alone or recorded, on the same rubric as a presentation to the class
• Testing in a separate, quiet room on request, arranged through the counselor by the end of the previous school day
• Written notice of a substitute teacher, a seating change, or a schedule change when the school knows in advance

Who does the work. Teachers handle four of the five. The counselor holds the pass and logs each use, which is the only way the group will know in December whether twice a day was right.

None of this treats anxiety. A 504 plan buys access to school while treatment happens somewhere else. Once a student is missing whole weeks, accommodations are no longer the conversation.

Example 3. Type 1 diabetes, fourth grade

Insulin-dependent diabetes, substantially limiting the endocrine system. This is the example the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) uses to explain that learning is not the only major life activity that counts. She reads above grade level. She qualifies anyway.

Medical plans get organized by person rather than by accommodation, because in an emergency the question is who.

• The nurse checks blood glucose before lunch and before any test over 30 minutes, gives insulin on the physician's order, and keeps the supply kit
• Two staff members, named in the plan, are trained to check glucose and give glucagon when the nurse is out
• The classroom teacher lets the student eat, drink, test, and use the bathroom without asking each time
• The front office does not count blood-sugar management or endocrinology appointments against the attendance policy
• A test interrupted by a glucose check restarts with the time that was left, or gets rescheduled

That fourth line is OCR's own remedy. In its Section 504 resource guide, the fix for a student penalized for disability-related absences was to change how the attendance policy applied to her.

What the plan does not do is treat the diagnosis as an accommodation. "Student has type 1 diabetes" is a fact about your child. It sits at the top of hundreds of plans as though it were the response too.

Example 4. Dyslexia, third grade

Dyslexia, substantially limiting reading. Her grades are B's. Good grades are not a reason to close the file, and OCR's own example is a student with dyslexia who earns mostly A's by spending far more time than her classmates and is still substantially limited in reading.

Five accommodations.

• Audio versions of any assigned text longer than one page in science and social studies
• Test questions read aloud, except on a test that measures decoding
• Time and a half on any assignment requiring sustained reading
• Spelling not counted in the grade for work outside spelling and language arts
• Speech-to-text on the school device for written work longer than a paragraph

Who does the work. The classroom teacher, with the reading specialist loading audio texts each unit and the technology aide setting up the device in week one.

Read that list again. Not one of those five teaches this child to read. Extended time on a reading task is more time with a task she cannot yet do. Structured phonics from a trained teacher is specially designed instruction, which the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) defines at 34 C.F.R. § 300.39 as adapting the content, methodology, or delivery of instruction. That belongs on an IEP, and this is the most common place a 504 plan holds a child who should have been evaluated under one.

Example 5. Hearing loss, sixth grade

Moderate hearing loss in both ears, corrected with hearing aids, substantially limiting hearing. The aids do not count against her. A district deciding whether a student is substantially limited has to ignore the good effects of hearing aids, medication, and other mitigating measures, with ordinary eyeglasses as the one exception.

Her plan is four lines long and it works. She has a named seat in each room where she can see the speaker's face. Teachers use the district FM system and check the receiver at the start of the period, which puts the equipment on the adult rather than on an eleven-year-old. Video shown in class is captioned. Anything said while a teacher's back is turned to the board goes in writing, in the posted notes or from an assigned note-taker.

The educational audiologist checks the equipment monthly. Four lines, two people responsible, and not one verb like support or encourage anywhere in it.

Short plans are not weak plans. A plan is weak when nobody can tell from reading it whether it happened yesterday. Four lines will not survive a teacher who never opened the email, so ask how the district confirms teachers have read it.

Strong and weak accommodation wording

The difference between a plan that works and a plan that sits in a file is usually the wording. A strong accommodation names the thing, the amount, the setting, and the person. A weak one names a good intention.

• Weak. Extended time as needed. Strong. Time and a half on all in-class tests and quizzes, in every subject.
• Weak. Preferential seating. Strong. A named seat in the front two rows, away from the door, assigned in the first week of each semester.
• Weak. Breaks when the student needs them. Strong. One break of up to two minutes per period, on a signal agreed with the teacher.
• Weak. Teacher will monitor and support. Strong. The teacher initials the planner at the end of each class.

The test is whether a substitute could follow the line without asking anyone what it means. If the answer is no, the line gets skipped, and it gets skipped hardest on the days it matters.

One caution, because precision cuts both ways. A plan that says testing happens in the counseling office has no answer on the morning that room is booked. Name the amount exactly. Name the setting by what it has to be, because "a separate, quiet room away from the group" beats a room number.

What does not belong in a 504 plan

Four things turn up on draft plans that should not be on them.

• Specially designed instruction. Reading intervention, a resource period, a special education teacher delivering content a different way. That is IDEA's territory, and writing it onto a 504 plan gets the service without IDEA's evaluation, annual goals, or progress reporting. Read IEP vs 504 plan before you agree to it.
• Modifications wearing an accommodation label. Shorter assignments, easier texts, fewer questions on the same test, a lower passing score. Those change what is being learned. Here is accommodations vs modifications.
• Annual goals. Section 504 requires none, and no progress reporting either. Some districts write goals anyway, with no federal reporting requirement standing behind them.
• Anything every student already gets. If the whole class gets the slides posted, posting the slides is not an accommodation. Ask for what is different for your child.

Districts write those things in anyway. A generous-looking 504 plan takes an afternoon, and an IDEA evaluation takes a team and up to 60 days. It reads fine right up to the week you need what only an IEP carries.

How to use these examples in a meeting

Print two things. The example closest to your child, and the draft plan the school sent you. If no draft came, ask for one in writing three school days out, because reading a plan for the first time across the table is how weak wording gets signed.

Then work down the two documents line by line.

1. Circle every line in the draft a substitute teacher could not follow. Those are your edits.
2. Write the replacement in the same shape as the examples above. The thing, the amount, the setting, the person.
3. Cut your list to five. A parent who brings twenty requests gets a meeting about the list. A parent who brings five gets a meeting about the child.
4. Tie each request to a line in the evaluation. Under 34 C.F.R. § 104.35(c) the group has to draw on information from a variety of sources, so a request pointing at a test score speaks the group's own language.
5. Ask three questions about every accommodation the group agrees to. Who does it. When does it start. How will anyone know if it did not happen.

Bring the examples as examples. The group decides, and it decides on your child's evaluation rather than on somebody else's plan.

Where an advocate helps is narrow. They read the evaluation against the draft, put your five requests into the district's own words, and sit next to you while the group works through them. Advocates are not attorneys. They cannot file a lawsuit or represent you at a due process hearing. Most advocates on our directory charge $75 to $150 per hour, and you can search by state to see who works near you.

What these examples cannot do

No district has to accept a single line on this page. These are not forms, no agency endorses them, and a group that reads your printout and writes something different has done nothing wrong. The duty runs to an appropriate education under 34 C.F.R. § 104.33. It does not run to the accommodation you named.

Four more limits worth carrying into the meeting.

• An accommodation on paper is not an accommodation in the room. Most of what parents bring us is that gap, rather than the wording.
• Formats differ, so a field in these examples may not exist on your district's form. Ask for the district's written Section 504 procedures.
• Section 504 reads the same in all 50 states. What changes at the district line is the template, the timeline, and who gets a copy.
• If the plan is not being followed, the routes are the district's grievance procedure under 34 C.F.R. § 104.7(b), an impartial hearing under § 104.36, and a complaint to OCR within 180 days of the last act.

Copy an example onto your child's plan without the evaluation behind it and you get a plan the school signed and nobody uses.