Students receiving accommodations under Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act—a law that predates the Individuals With Disabilities Act and provides a more-expansive definition of disability than the IDEA—differ from those classified under IDEA, finds an analysis of U.S. Department of Education data published in the Aug. 7 edition of the Journal of Disability Policy Studies.
Among the findings: White students are more than twice as likely (1.26 percent) to have a 504 plan compared with their black (0.57 percent) or Hispanic (0.5 percent) classmates. Male students were almost twice as likely to have a 504-only plan (1.27 percent) compared with female students (0.76 percent). A little less than 1 percent of children in Title I schools, or 0.84 percent, had 504 plans only. That compares with 1.23 percent of students in schools that do not receive Title I funds.
