There appears to be a lot of misinformation or misunderstanding amongst parents and boarding school staff and administrators regarding legal requirements, or lack thereof, for private boarding schools to provide certain accommodations or modifications for students who may have a documented disability and/or ADHD. Many of them believe that since the school is "private" and especially if it does not receive any federal funding, then the school may deny, or pick and choose voluntarily which (if any) types of accommodations or modifications it will provide to the student. HOWEVER, that is wrong and it is ILLEGAL for them to not provide all and any accommodations or modifications, at SCHOOL expense, unless they can demonstrate that it would be a HUGE (hard to prove) burden for the school to have to do so or that the accommodation or modification would substantially alter the SUBSTANCE of the curriculum etc. They do not have to provide any remediation services but they DO have to provide all accommodations, modifications to testing format etc. and modifications to school policies and practices etc. that are necessary to give the student "equal access" to everything other students do such as learning and to demonstrating mastery, in a "level the playing field" type of way. ALL USA private schools, including all boarding schools, in EVERY state are subject to the federal americans with disabilities act (ADA) regardless of whether they receive any federal funds, and must provide reasonable accommodations at the school's expense, including auxiliary aids and services so that the student has equal access and a level playing field, individualized to the needs of the student pursuant to the student's documented disabilities. This includes that (for example) they even have to provide (at school expense) things such as a sign language interpreter for a kid who has a hearing disability. And they canNOT deny or rescind admission due to the existence of the disability or due to the need for the particular accommodations. If they violate this and the parent files a complaint with the federal Office of Civil Rights or the comparable state civil rights agency that enforces the ADA law, the school will get into big trouble. Most of the schools appear to not understand the applicability of the ADA to them as private schools and most parents similarly are not aware of this. But the only way we can change this is to get the word out to the schools and to the parents. I can provide links to cases, government agency contacts, etc., if anyone needs that. Remember, this is specifically due to the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), under which all private schools are considered places of "public" accommodation (whether or not they receive any federal funding) even though they are "private" schools. Please help get the word out to the schools and the parents and students !
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