FAQ for parents of current and prospective students

Roles and Responsibilities

Students need the support, but not the control of parents and other family members. Appropriate parental involvement must take place within the boundaries set by law, by good sense, and by keeping the long-term best interest of the emerging young adult in mind. Such involvement as it relates to ÃÛÌÒ½´life most often involves advising and encouraging the college life from the sidelines. Only the most extreme circumstances, such as those that seriously threaten the health of the student, allow for direct parental involvement.

Any student's role is to successfully transition into an independent adult. We know that students with disabilities face the same challenges as every college bound young adult plus the challenges related to their disability. However, their role still remains to successfully transition into an independent adult. The time for dependence is coming to a close. A student with a disability is responsible for requesting accommodations through DASS. DASS will not seek the students out. A student with a disability is also responsible for providing acceptable documentation of his or her disability. After being approved through DASS, the student is responsible for requesting letters for professors, advocating/disclosing his/her disability to professors in order to receive accommodations, and setting appointments for proctored tests when needed.

For more about the roles and responsibilities of ÃÛÌÒ½´students, faculty members, the DASS office, and the University as a whole, check out our Roles and Responsibilities Chart.

We have some great resources listed on the Parent Resources main page.

Eligibility and Requesting Services

No. All requests for accommodations and services must come directly from the student.

No. Students must request academic accommodations and other support services. This can be very frustrating for parents who have always taken an active role in their student's educational needs. Students may want to “try it on their own” before requesting support services. Encourage your student to meet with a DASS staff member to determine whether or not they should request support services. Our staff is available to help students make informed decisions.

In its most basic form, documentation must be provided by a qualified provider, be current and substantial, and contain a clear diagnosis, functional limitations in an academic environment, and recommendations justified by the nature and severity of the functional limitations.

For definitions of these terms and a list of documentation requirements based on disability type, please refer to Documentation Guidelines.

No. While IEPs and 504 Plans are useful for showing a history of accommodations, colleges are not legally obligated to follow them. For more information, see the .

ÃÛÌÒ½´offers academic support services to all students who request it, including tutoring, writing support, and academic workshops. Undergraduate students with ADD/ADHD, LD, and ASD, with or without formal accommodations, may receive support in the form of weekly academic coaching, and all undergraduate students are eligible for academic counseling, including help with time management, organization, and academic skills-building. All of these services are free and available at the Altshuler Learning Enhancement Center (A-LEC).

Differences Between High School and College Level Accommodations

Not necessarily.

While high school IEPs and 504 Plans are useful for showing a history of accommodations, colleges are not legally obligated to follow them. For more information, see the .

At the college level, the student's diagnosis needs to meet the criteria of a “disabling condition.” Any test data needs to support evidence of a current and significant functional limitation that impacts learning, or other aspects of the academic environment. The evaluation must support a link between the disability and the requested accommodation.

Also, not all accommodations granted at the high school level are appropriate in college. Accommodations cannot change the fundamental nature or requirements of a class or course of study. Keep in mind that while high school accommodations and services tend to be geared toward student success, college-level accommodations are meant to provide equal access, and do not guarantee success.

The responsibilities towards students with disabilities at ÃÛÌÒ½´are very different from those of high schools. High schools are required under IDEA to identify the educational needs of students with a disability and provide a free and appropriate education. This responsibility is not required of SMU. ÃÛÌÒ½´is required to provide appropriate academic accommodations to ensure that a student with a disability is not discriminated against. The student is responsible for disclosing his or her disability to the institution.

In college, students are expected to know how they are doing and seek assistance if they are having problems. The college is not permitted to release information about a student's academic progress, without a release from the student. Even if the student signs a release, we encourage parents to allow their students to handle their academics themselves, while keeping parents in the loop. It is not appropriate for parents to contact their student's instructors; however, for a parent with concerns, a student's academic adviser can be an appropriate contact. 

At the start of each semester, students who are eligible for academic accommodations use our online interface, DASS Link, to request their Letters of Accommodation (LOAs). The student then determines what accommodation they want to use in each course, individually. For example, a student may decide not to share with their English Lit instructor that they have testing accommodations since that class that has no exams. DASS receives the student's request for their LOAs, reviews it, and then sends the personalized LOAs to the student's instructors.

Students complete this process by contacting each instructor to work out how accommodations will be implemented in their particular class. Instructors may handle accommodations differently from one another, so this requires a conversation between the student and instructor.

The university requires that students notify faculty with their LOAs at least seven days prior to the need for accommodations, so it's best for students to request their letters as early as possible - we recommend students make the LOA request 1-2 weeks before classes start and speak with all instructors about their accommodations by the end of the 2nd week of classes. In Summer and Intersessions, this process should be completed on or before the first day of class.

Confidentiality

A college student can sign a release giving staff permission to share academic information with parents. However, you should know that even if a student signs a release, DASS staff requires that the student handle any matters related to our office, including registration and accommodations. We do not work with the parent in place of the student. It is in the student's best interest to negotiate their accommodations as they learn to be their own self-advocate.