#4 Changes from High School to College

Episode 4, "Changes from HIgh School to College" gives parents and students a closer look at some of the changes to expect at college as students move from the K-12 IDEA laws to ADA and FERPA laws in adult education.  The second major difference between high school and college is a change in fundamental philosophy and legal philosophy, and the third difference includes changes in how students are notified about critical information. 

Transcript

 ToTo  I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore, and you're not in high school anymore.

Welcome to Episode 4 College, Disabilities, and Success from High School to College with Mickie Hayes

I really want to focus on the changes that you're going to see happening from when you go from the K-12 system into the college system. The first change that I want to talk about is the differences in the laws. the K-12 system is under IDEA, Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act and the college system is under the ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act and FERPA, Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. Now under both of these laws privacy is protected. Under IDEA, usually in the school systems, the general knowledge is out there as to which students have disabilities because there's so many different staff and faculty and teachers and support staff for the student with a disability that the information is more common knowledge. Definitely more common knowledge, in my opinion, than it is in college, but you can expect some big changes in college. Number one is confidentiality. Because of the FERPA law, Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, your information after the age of 18 is confidential and that means when you get to college they do not automatically know that you have a disability. When your transcripts come from the high school, they (the colleges) are not going to know you had a learning disability or a health impairment or a 504 plan. That's not on your transcripts. The only way anybody knows in college is if you tell them. It's not on your application when you apply to the college unless you told them, but assuming you didn't say anything when you get into college and you walk into that classroom for the first time, that professor has no clue that you have a disability unless you self-identify. Now most of the time students do this before classes begin. In the best world between high school and college, you will at some point make an appointment with a Disability Specialist and have a conversation about their policies and procedures, and at that time you'll learn all about self-identification and what you have to do to arrange accommodations in class and you start talking to the professor. If you assume you're going to have accommodations like you did in high school, that's not going to happen unless you actually have that conversation first with the Disability Services office. You can self-identify to the professor but even if you do that, you still need to get that information over to the Disability Services office, so that is a very very big change because you're no longer relying on other people to take care of business. You have to take care of business yourself and your parents cannot talk about you without signed consent unless you're present and give permission to the Disability Services office. and that's an interesting conversation I’ve had over and over and over and over again with parents and new students. Sometimes the parents say “yay” and sometimes the parents say “oh no really?” Sometimes the students say “yay” and sometimes the students say “oh no really?” because the responsibility of speaking up on your behalf falls on you the student. So that's the first thing you have to do is self-identify and make sure that people know what they need to know. 

The second major difference between high school and college is a fundamental philosophy and legal philosophy. For high school, the practice is to provide accommodations, modify the work, do what you need to do to make the students successful. So the K-12 system under IDEA accommodates for success. When you get to college, they do not accommodate for success. They accommodate for equal access and that is a big philosophical difference and legal difference and it has a big impact on the accommodations that you're going to get in your work. In high school, if the class is doing 50 vocabulary words and you have a struggle with that, they might cut yours down to 20 or 10 and that's all you do and everybody's happy. In college, if the class has to do 50 vocabulary words, so do you. The amount doesn't get cut down, and that's a conversation you have to have with the Disability Specialist. You want to be thinking about how your accommodations could work out for you so that the impact of your disability doesn't affect your ability to show what you know. But in college they are not going to modify the assignments and so where K-12 accommodated for success, college accommodates for equal access. They still want you to be successful, don't get me wrong, but they only accommodate for equal access.

Another big difference between high school and college happens in the case of notifications. In high school and in the K-12 system they give you flyers, they give you leaflets, they give you reminders, the teachers remind you, you get emails, your parents get emails, they put reminders all over creation and even if you miss a deadline they're oftentimes still going to take the information that you need to give them. in college deadlines are a really, really big really big issue. In college very often deadlines are not flexible. A deadline is a deadline is a deadline and if you missed it that problem is going to fall on you. The college sort of looks on the point of view that if it's printed it is your responsibility to check on your email, to ask questions. Talk to the Disability Specialist at the college of your choice if you have questions about anything. Look around, be aware. They'll have flyers posted and pictures posted, but essentially if it's written down you have been told and the fact that you didn't know, frankly, it's your problem, so you really have to be on top of things and pay attention to what is written down and what is given to you in writing. That takes us to the issue of the syllabus. I’m going to talk about that on another podcast, but suffice to say that when you are in college classes, every professor gives you a syllabus and if you don't read it and you don't pay attention to it, you're going to have a problem. It's not their problem, it will be your problem, so if a professor gives you any kind of written work or written assignments, make sure you pay attention to deadlines. 

Another major difference between high school and college are the policies and procedures. Policies and procedures in the K-12 system are pretty uniform because every school in the country is under IDEA and so they fall under the IDEA guidelines and laws. In college because everything is under the ADA. The colleges have a lot more flexibility in dictating their own guidelines, and this is a critical difference that you need to be aware of. The policies and procedures at the college will vary from one college to another, so because you got accommodations automatically before, does not mean you're going to get those same accommodations at a different college. Disability Services vary from one college to another. Some colleges have entire departments with multiple people, multiple staff, and multiple resources for individuals with disabilities. Other colleges have one person who works with disabilities on a part-time basis while they're advising gen ed students, and that is a huge difference in services. Every college must buy ADA law provides you with services, but the type of services, the quality of the services, the expectations of the services are going to vary from one college to another so before you even start that process you need to go back and do your homework and make sure that the college that you choose turns out to be a good fit for your needs. Some students I knew needed a lot of attention and they needed a lot of support and a lot of help. Other students I barely saw. They would visit once a semester, get their accommodations, go back to classes, and that was it I. never saw them again for the rest of the semester. so it totally depends on your needs, and on the school, and on how serviceable they are. I guess available to you is probably a better word. Documentation from the K-12 system to the college system is also very different. I had more students that I can count show up in the office with an IEP. Now most colleges take IEPs  to identify that you have a disability, but they're really limited on how much they can provide you based on the IEP. Most colleges want some sort of psychological evaluation that has been given to you using adult norms. I had students with an IEP and the reality was they were tested in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, maybe identified that they had a disability and that identification followed them all the way up to graduation. In the K-12 it works just fine, but in the college they want to know if you have updated documentation using adult norms. Now the only way you can find out what your college needs from you with regards to documentation is to ask them, and again that goes back to those early conversations that you had before you even applied to college. Don't assume that things are just going to magically happen. Don't show up to the disabilities office right before college starts and assume that things are magically going to happen like they did in high school. You really really need to plan ahead and make sure all your ducks are in a row before you get to that first day of school again. On another podcast I’ll go into documentation in a lot more detail

Remember Dorothy said at the beginning of the Wizard of Oz, “ ToTo, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore.” Well I’m going to change that around a little bit and say, “Student, I have a feeling you're not in high school anymore!” Things are going to change, and you simply need know how they're going to impact your life as a college student. If you want more information about life as a college student, you might want to check out my website mickieteaches.com and look for the course that I have created. It takes about three hours to go through. It's several videos that I made telling exactly what you need to know that's going to change from high school to college and what you can expect. It's a very very easy resource and I think worthwhile. I priced it very very low because I want people to be able to get the information. That's really where my head is at, making sure you know and you're not surprised ahead of time, so you might want to take a look at that. On my website, mickieteaches.com, are other resources on my website that I have put together on different kinds of disabilities, accommodations, universal design for learning, all sorts of resources there so you might want to take a closer look at that as well. I hope you have a wonderful day and I look forward to talking to you again when I do episode 5. Take care, bye.

The information contained throughout this podcast has been gleaned from my own personal experiences, but to ensure accuracy, please contact the Disability Services at the college of your choice to have first-hand information and the most up-to-date policies and procedures followed by your particular institution of higher education. The content in any of these podcasts is not intended as a substitute information from legal, educational, or medical professionals. Always seek the advice of your attorney or qualified health care provider with any questions you may have with regards to legal, educational, or medical concerns.