The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently issued new resources outlining the rights of students with sickle cell disease, epilepsy, and cancer. The resources provide information for stakeholders and schools on the rights of students with those conditions under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
The resources describe the rights of students at the K-12 and higher education levels and explain the circumstances under which a student with one these conditions is considered a student with a disability for purposes of Section 504 protections. Further, each of the resources provides examples of the actions that schools may need to take to address students’ conditions and explains the rights of students should a school fail to provide the required accommodations.
The new resources follow similar documents issued by OCR earlier this year addressing required accommodations for students with asthma, gastroesophageal reflux disease, diabetes, and food allergies. The resource on sickle cell disease is available here; the epilepsy resource here, and the cancer resource is here.
