504

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability. This law applies not only to workplaces and public entities but also to public elementary and secondary schools. The Federal Agency that governs 504 is the Office of Civil Rights.

Section 504 requires that school districts provide a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to qualified students in their jurisdictions with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, regardless of the nature or severity of the disability. Under Section 504, FAPE means providing regular or special education and related aids and services designed to meet the student’s individual educational needs as adequately as the needs of nondisabled students are met. If a district fails to find or does not provide the accommodations necessary to allow a student to participate in school activities as adequately as a student without a disability, the district may be discriminating against that student based on disability.

 

No otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States . . . shall, solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance . . . Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973