When our son, now nine years old, was diagnosed with “Generalized Anxiety Disorder” in October 2015, I was set on silently getting him help. I didn’t want him to be labeled. I didn’t want people (teachers) to see that on a chart somewhere and have preconceived notions on how he would act, or how difficult he would be, before even meeting him.
However, over the past 18 months, as I’ve encountered more and more parents with a gifted child that struggles with anxiety, I’ve been more willing to share – both privately and publicly – about our son’s struggle too.
But it wasn’t until this school year that we began to see the need to get our son on a 504 Plan. He’s in third grade this year, which means actual grades for the first time, and when there was a significant drop in his grades at second semester, we were concerned. Upon discussing it with him, we found how overwhelmed he was, and how his anxiety was getting the best of him. We’re so grateful for his teacher who, in one brief email conversation, took it upon herself to accommodate for him and, within a week, we saw dramatic improvement.
That’s when we realized that a 504 Plan would be necessary. While he has an amazing teacher this year – who sees him for who he is, adores him, and is willing to go out of her way to help him – we recognized immediately that may not always be the case. So we needed to make the strategies she uses for him now a requirement for his future academic journey too.
Let me briefly explain, as you’re likely familiar with the term “IEP,” but I’ve found along this journey that most parents have no idea what a 504 Plan is (I didn’t initially). According to The Rehabilitation Act of 1973,
“An eligible student under Section 504 is a student who (a) has, (b) has record of having, or (c) is regarded as having a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits a major life activity such as learning, self-care, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, working and performing manual tasks.”
For our son, his anxiety disorder was preventing him from being able to complete a task with the knowledge that he had a limited amount of time to do it, because he would want to do it extra perfectly, and therefore would take longer to complete it. He wouldn’t get it done in time and then would panic and not turn it in at all. If there were multiple assignments on his desk to do in a day, the number of them would give him anxiety and he would shut down. We were finding he was even having anxiety attacks in P.E. class when he didn’t fully understand the game instructions.
The process to obtain a 504 Plan isn’t simple, but is manageable. You must first have a diagnosis from a clinical psychologist (if dealing with a mental disability) or doctor. It’s important to note that the state will not accept a diagnosis from a licensed counselor – it must be from a clinical psychologist. Thankfully, we had a full psych evaluation done for our son last summer (more so for the requirements for Davidson Young Scholars, but also as a precaution). That was submitted to the school nurse (after I highlighted several relevant sections!), who contacted the 504 coordinator for the district, and a meeting date was scheduled for approximately three weeks out.
The meeting was held at the school, during the school day while our son’s class was in specials and his teacher was available. His teacher, teacher’s aide, the nurse and the 504 coordinator were all present (typically the school counselor attends also and the principal on occasion). My husband and I were there, as well as one of our son’s teachers from Phelps for support (we are so grateful for her!). We discussed our son’s needs and the accommodations his teacher had been making. The 504 coordinator wrote all of those accommodations down, we all signed the paper and that officially became his 504 Plan.
This plan is now legally binding throughout the entire state of Missouri. Every single teacher our son encounters must abide by the accommodations listed, even if we move to another town within the state. Every year around the same time, we will come together for a review of the plan, adding anything else he may need and removing anything that is no longer necessary. Ideally, we’d like him to learn the coping mechanisms he needs so that we can remove the 504 Plan entirely. But we also recognize that things get pretty tough come middle school, so we want to be prepared and give him the tools he needs to succeed before we’re in a dire situation.
He is thriving with this plan in place. He has peace of mind knowing that he can tell a teacher “I have a 504 Plan for anxiety and need a safe place to calm down.” And I have peace of mind knowing that our boy has what he needs to continue excelling.