Federal Laws and Regulations
THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT
1 - Regulations
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) is the end result of almost 20 years of debate on disability rights. It provides the general framework and approach for ending discrimination for persons with disabilities. The stated national goals of the ADA are to guarantee that persons with disabilities have equality of opportunity, a chance to fully participate in society, are able to live independently and can be economically self-sufficient.
You will find that ADA titles I, II, III, Sections 504, and 255 are intertwined for the most updated and finest universal services available to students with disabilities. Therefore, you will find mention of a number of titles and sections throughout the Handbook.
The ADA has five sections or Titles. The titles that reflects the students in Higher Education are Title I, and Title III.
Title I Regulation:
Title I addresses the accessibility issues regarding all academic and social activities on a Campus. It also prohibits public entities from providing services which discriminate against persons with disabilities. Specific actions must be taken by public agencies to avoid discrimination. For example, the law requires that:
- 1 - The campus must be equipped with a wheelchair and a lift.
- 2 - Public agencies which provide complete accessibility not limited to all buildings, bathrooms, activity areas and classrooms.
- 3 - New facilities must be accessible.
- 4 - Alterations to facilities must include features to make them accessible.
The Title II Regulation:
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“A public entity shall furnish appropriate auxiliary aids and services where necessary to afford an individual with a disability an equal opportunity to participate in, and enjoy the benefits of, a service, program, or activity conducted by a public entity.”
It is, therefore, the school's responsibility to provide these auxiliary aids and services in a timely manner to ensure effective participation by students with disabilities. If students are being evaluated to determine their eligibility under Section 504 or the ADA, the recipient must provide auxiliary aids in the interim.
Title II Regulation Contains Comparable Provisions.
The Section 504 Regulation also states:
Aids, benefits, and services, to be equally effective, are not required to produce the identical result or level of achievement for handicapped and non-handicapped persons, but must afford handicapped persons equal opportunity to obtain the same result, to gain the same benefit, or to reach the same level of achievement, in the most integrated setting appropriate to the person's needs.
The institution must analyze the appropriateness of an aid or service in its specific context. For example, the type of assistance needed in a classroom by a student who is hearing-impaired may vary, depending upon whether the format is a large lecture hall or a seminar. With the one-way communication of a lecture, the service of a note-taker may be adequate, but in the two-way communication of a seminar, an interpreter may be needed. College officials also should be aware that in determining what types of auxiliary aids and services are necessary under Title II of the ADA, the institution must give primary consideration to the requests of individuals with disabilities.
Personal Aids and Services
An issue that is often misunderstood by postsecondary officials and students is the provision of personal aids and services. Personal aids and services, including help in bathing, dressing, or other personal care, they are not required to be provided by postsecondary institutions. The Section 504 regulation states:
* Recipients need not provide attendants, individually prescribed devices, readers for personal use or study, or other devices or services of a personal nature.
Title II of the ADA similarly states that personal services are not required.
In order to ensure that students with disabilities are given a free appropriate public education, local education agencies are required to provide many services and aids of a personal nature to students with disabilities when they are enrolled in elementary and secondary schools. However, once students with disabilities graduate from a high school program or its equivalent, education institutions are no longer required to provide aids, devices, or services of a personal nature.
Postsecondary schools do not have to provide personal services relating to certain individual academic activities. Personal attendants and individually prescribed devices are the responsibility of the student who has a disability and not of the institution. For example, readers may be provided for classroom use but institutions are not required to provide readers for personal use or for help during individual study time.
Title III Regulations
This section of the ADA Regulation reflects the confidentiality of the student’s disability. Where by the professionals working with the students cannot discuss their disabled students with anyone unless the student can sign a wavier providing permission to the particular (name) administrator/professor/instructor to discuss a particular issue with a particular person, and the person must be named as well.
Sec.36.201 General.
(a) Prohibition of discrimination. No individual shall be discriminated against on the basis of disability in the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of any place of public accommodation by any private entity who owns, leases (or leases to), or operates a place of public accommodation.
Sec.36.202 Activities.
(a) Denial of participation. A public accommodation shall not subject an individual or class of individuals on the basis of a disability or disabilities of such individual or class, directly, or through contractual, licensing, or other arrangements, to a denial of the opportunity of the individual or class to participate in or benefit from the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations of a place of public accommodation.
(b) Participation in unequal benefit. A public accommodation shall not afford an individual or class of individuals, on the basis of a disability or disabilities of such individual or class, directly, or through contractual, licensing, or other arrangements, with the opportunity to participate in or benefit from a good, service, facility, privilege, advantage, or accommodation that is not equal to that afforded to other individuals.
(c) Separate benefit. A public accommodation shall not provide an individual or class of individuals, on the basis of a disability or disabilities of such individual or class, directly, or through contractual, licensing, or other arrangements with a good, service, facility, privilege, advantage, or accommodation that is different or separate from that provided to other individuals, unless such action is necessary to provide the individual or class of individuals with a good, service, facility, privilege, advantage, or accommodation, or other opportunity that is as effective as that provided to others.
(d) Individual or class of individuals. For purposes of paragraphs (a) through (c) of this section, the term
"Individual or class of individuals'' refers to the clients or customers of the public accommodation that enters into the contractual, licensing, or other arrangement.
Sec.36.203 Integrated Settings.
(a) General. A public accommodation shall afford goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations to an individual with a disability in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of the individual.
(b) Opportunity to participate. Notwithstanding the existence of separate or different programs or activities provided in accordance with this subpart, a public accommodation shall not deny an individual with a disability an opportunity to participate in such programs or activities that are not separate or different.
(c) Accommodations and services. (1) Nothing in this part shall be construed to require an individual with a disability to accept an accommodation, aid, service, opportunity, or benefit available under this part that such individual chooses not to accept.
Title IX
Title IX was the first comprehensive federal law to prohibit sex discrimination against students and employees of educational institutions. Title IX benefits both males and females, and is at the heart of efforts to create gender equitable schools. The law requires educational institutions to maintain policies, practices and programs that do not discriminate against anyone based on sex. Under this law, males and females are expected to receive fair and equal treatment in all arenas of public schooling: recruitment, admissions, educational programs and activities, course offerings and access, counseling, financial aid, employment assistance, facilities and housing, health and insurance benefits, marital and parental status, scholarships, sexual harassment, and athletics.
No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal assistance.
- Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Tutoring Regulations:
Under the applicable regulations, tutoring is a personal service. Therefore, it need not be provided unless the school provides tutoring to other students, in which case it must make that tutoring program accessible to students with disabilities. as per regulations. Tutoring is not a required accommodation under either the ADA or section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act.
Title V Regulations 58168. Tutoring.
Tutoring, when provided by the college, shall be considered a method of instruction that involves a student tutor who has been successful in a particular subject or discipline, or who has demonstrated a particular skill, and who has received specific training in tutoring methods and who assists one or more students in need of special supplemental instruction in the subject or skill. Student attendance in tutoring is eligible for apportionment only in a noncredit course offered under the provisions of Education Code section 84711(a)(2).
NOTE: Authority cited: Sections 66700 and 70901, Education Code. Reference: Section 70901, Education Code. 58170. Apportionment for Tutoring.
Apportionment may be claimed for individual student tutoring only if all the following conditions are met:
(a) The individual student tutoring is conducted in a designated learning center.
(b) The designated learning center is supervised by a person who meets the minimum qualifications prescribed by Section 53415.
(c) All tutors successfully complete a course in tutoring methods and the use of appropriate written and mediated instructional materials and which includes supervised practice tutoring. This requirement may be waived by the chief instructional or student services officer on the basis of advanced degrees or equivalent training. All tutors shall be approved by a faculty member from the discipline or disciplines in which the student will tutor.
(d) All students receiving individual tutoring are enrolled in a noncredit course carrying Taxonomy of Programs number 4930.09, which is entitled "Supervised Tutoring."
(e) Students are assigned to the Supervised Tutoring course by a counselor or an instructor on the basis of an identified learning need.
(f) An attendance accounting method is established which accurately and rigorously monitors positive attendance.
(g) Student tutors may be remunerated but may not be granted academic credit for tutoring beyond that stipulated in (c) above.
(h) The district shall not claim state apportionment for tutoring services for which it is being paid from state categorical funds.
NOTE: Authority cited: Sections 70901 and 84500, Education Code. Reference: Sections 70901, 84500 and 87356, Education Code. information under the Regulations and Guidelines. Standing Orders of the Board of Governors
Office of Special Services for Students with Disabilities
Office: Frese Hall, room 111
Telephone: 718-997-5870 / Fax: 718-997-5895
email: QC_SPSV@qc.cuny.edu
