If you have been in the field of special education for any amount of time, you have heard the terms 504 Plans and IEPs. IEPs are covered under IDEA, special education law, and are created to aid the child in learning. 504 Plans are covered under civil rights law and generally do not address learning goals.
Many states have the two legal documents completely separate and if the child has a 504 Plan, he typically does not have an IEP and vice versa. However, in some states and districts, students can have both.
As mentioned, IEPs and 504 plans have very unique goals when it comes to what they address and how they address it.
Some districts roll any health issues into the IEP making a 504 Plan moot.
Other districts create a separate Health Plan for health-related issues and still retain the IEP.
And yet other schools use the 504 Plan as their Health Plan and, thus, have students with both an IEP and a 504 Plan.
So, to make a blanket statement that students cannot have both documents in effect at the same time is simply untrue. While it may be unusual in many areas of the country, it does happen in others.
It boils down to what your state and district prefer and how they want the different services accounted for and implemented.
For those districts and states that separate any other additional student needs into a 504 Plan, here are some reasons why there may be both documents:
For a student with health concerns, it’s always important to keep a health log. Get access to this template by joining The Intentional IEP here, or clicking the image above.
Although the list above is not all-inclusive, it does cover many of the reasons why districts opt to keep students on both 504 Plans and IEPs.
While, technically, the health concerns can be added to the IEP document, some districts feel safer keeping them in a separate document that addresses them specifically.
In most cases, the presence of both the IEP and the 504 Plan is determined by the child’s need for services outside of the realm of learning supports.
Teachers can become very adamant about the “right way” to do things – especially when it comes to IEPs and 504 Plans.
Those who have never experienced a child having both documents may see the existence of both as wrong or poorly executed.
For those who have always had students with separate documents for their health concerns, whether it be a specific Health Plan or a 504 Plan that’s used to address medical needs, the idea of combining the documents seems to be incorrect.
There is no right or wrong. There can be both documents in place at the same time and both will have weight and relevance.
At the end of the day, what matters is that the students are having their needs addressed in a way that makes sense and can be implemented. If that means having both an IEP and a 504 Plan per the school district’s policies, then that is the way it should be done.
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