On May 6, 2022, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) announced plans to gather public comment on possible amendments to regulations implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.  According to its press release, DOE’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will solicit public comments “to help decide how best to improve current regulations to assist America’s students with disabilities.”

          Interested parties may Click Here  to submit comments.  No deadline for comments appeared on this DOE/OCR webpage as of May 6. 

          This DOE collection of public comments presents an opportunity for your school or district to submit comments relating to no less than the following Section 504 matters involving students with disabilities:

• Child Find
• Qualifying disability
• Evaluation
• Reasonable accommodation
• Program accessibility
• FAPE
• Student discipline

 

         As DOE notes, any comments received may be made available to the public, so commenters should avoid including any personal information that should be kept confidential.  DOE also notes that it intends to rely on prior feedback received in response to an earlier Request for Information for its assessing of proposed rulemaking.

        Leon | Alcala, PLLC is prepared to assist in all matters relating to Section 504 and investigations by OCR.

 

Author:  John Janssen