How Do You Know Which Accommodations to Try at School?

We have a long list of accommodations that can be written into an IEP or 504 plan to help kids with disabilities access their education, but if you’re staring at that long list, how do you know which accommodations would actually be beneficial for your child?

Whether you’re working on developing your child’s very first IEP or you’re multiple years into this process, assessments can offer a lot of insight into how your child learns. Take a look at your child’s educational assessments, reports from specialists, doctor evaluations, and any other documentation from someone who has worked with or observed your child.

Assessment reports often include recommendations from the assessing professional, so you can talk to your school team about incorporating those recommendations as accommodations in your child’s IEP or 504. If you have assessment reports from private professionals, your school team can consider those too.

For example:

• If a speech assessment indicates that your child would benefit from extra processing time when answering questions, that can be added as an accommodation.
• An assistive technology (AT) assessment can give insights into technology or tools in the classroom that may help your child access the curriculum.
• If you have concerns about your child’s behavior at school, a functional behavioral assessment (FBA) can identify recommendations for helping your child stay regulated.

Once you’ve reviewed your child's current assessments, you can see if additional assessments are needed. If you’re not sure what kind of assessment to ask for, don’t worry; talk to your school team about your concerns, and the school’s experts will discuss which assessment they recommend.

Assessments often focus on areas of need, but don’t forget to think about your child’s areas of strength too. For example, if your child struggles in reading but has strong auditory comprehension skills, it could indicate that getting audio versions of written materials would be a helpful accommodation to write into their IEP or 504.

Check out our article IEP Assessments 101 to learn more about what kind of assessments are available, how to review them, and more expert tips.

The therapists who work with your child at school, in clinics, or at home can give accommodation recommendations that are individualized to your child. For example, if your private OT mentions adaptive scissors or eating utensils that they use during sessions, you can request that those be added as school accommodations. The school PT might recommend different seating options to support your child at their desk.

You can also ask therapy providers to trial different accommodations during therapy services to see what your child responds to. If something works well, you can request that it be added to your child’s IEP or 504.

Your school district’s inclusion specialist, who may be a special education teacher, a member of the special education admin team, or a consultant, is responsible for helping students in special education access school alongside their peers. They can recommend accommodations and other supports to support your child’s access to the general education curriculum and activities with their classmates. An inclusion specialist can also work with your child’s teachers to implement accommodations and adapt classroom material for different learning styles.

Here are some examples from Inclusion Facilitator Mary Chirichella:

One way to see what accommodations could be helpful at school is to ask your child where they struggle and what they want to try. Non-attorney education advocate Lisa Carey advises, “Start always with open-ended questions. Say, ‘What is a particularly difficult time of day, and what's happening during that time?’ That kind of question can get you so much information that will help you start to figure out what's actually going on in the classroom.”

However, Carey says that not all of our kids are able to just tell us. Instead, we’ll need to observe them. Do you notice an increase in behaviors when your child comes home from school, or do they not want to go to school in the morning? Do they struggle with homework? This can give you a clue that additional supports are needed, so you can open a discussion with your school team.

While every student has unique challenges and support needs, your child’s diagnosis can be a starting point to learn about accommodations that may help them access their education. For example, students with Down syndrome tend to have a learning profile with challenges in working memory but strengths in visual processing, so visual aides and manipulatives can be helpful accommodations in the classroom.

Non-attorney education advocate Karen Ford Cull says, “While IEP specialized academic instruction and related services teach your child based on their learning profile, accommodations are often designed to get around the challenges of their disability. Both are important — if a child is still learning to read, we want to make sure there is explicit literacy instruction in place. We might also at the same time provide accommodations that allow the child to hear the story read aloud by an aide or by using text-to-speech tools.”

Knowing about what supports are typically helpful for students with your child’s diagnosis can inform you and your school team as you think about classroom supports. Check out our diagnosis-specific articles written in consultation with education and disability experts:

• ADHD
• Autism
• Blindness/low vision
• Cerebral palsy
• Childhood apraxia of speech
• Cortical vision impairment
• Deaf/hearing loss
• Down syndrome
• Dyscalculia
• Dysgraphia
• Dyslexia
• Emotional disability
• Epilepsy
• Executive functioning challenges
• FASD
• Intellectual disability
• Mental health challenges
• OCD
• Orthopedic impairment
• Sensory processing disorder
• Tourette syndrome
• Trauma
• Twice-exceptional

If your child’s diagnosis isn’t on this list, check out our roundup of many reputable disability organizations that can provide more information and resources.

It can also be helpful to talk to other parents of kids with your child’s disability. Online or in-person support groups, your school’s parent-teacher association (PTA) or parent-teacher organization (PTO), and local nonprofit organizations can be helpful resources for meeting fellow parents and talking with them about what works or doesn’t work for their children.

You don't have to guess whether your child's current accommodations are enough. Undivided's IEP Assistant reviews your child's IEP, including their present levels, goals, services, and evaluation data, and any assessments or doctor reports you upload. Then, it suggests accommodations and modifications that may be missing based on your child's unique needs. Every recommendation is backed by Undivided's expert guidance, so you can understand not just what to ask for, but why it matters.

You can review, save, or dismiss recommendations, then print a personalized summary of your questions and priorities to bring to your next IEP meeting. It's like having an extra set of experienced eyes on your child's IEP before you sit down with the team. The hardest part isn't asking for accommodations; it's knowing what's possible. Undivided’s IEP Assistant helps identify supports you may not have thought to ask about, so you can have a more informed conversation with your child's IEP team.

Accommodations are all about leveling the playing field so that our kids can access the curriculum alongside peers in a way that works for them. We hope these ideas provide you with a good starting point, so you can identify the individualized supports that help your child thrive at school.