Why the IEP disappears the day your child starts college

Here's a shift that catches many families off guard: the IEP that guided your child through K–12 does not follow them to college. In public school, services come from IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), which places the legal duty on the school to find, evaluate, and serve your child — an entitlement. Once your teen graduates or ages out, IDEA no longer applies.

In college, protection comes instead from the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. These are civil-rights laws, not education-services laws. They guarantee equal access and reasonable accommodations (extra test time, note-takers, accessible materials) — but not the modified curricula, specialized instruction, or progress monitoring an IEP provided. The goal changes from helping your child succeed to removing barriers to a level playing field.

The biggest practical change is who does the work. In college, the student — now a legal adult — must self-identify, register with the disability services office, provide their own documentation, and request accommodations each term. Nobody reaches out first. That's why many families spend the high-school years deliberately building self-advocacy skills: knowing their diagnosis, what helps, and how to ask for it.