504 Tips

504 COORDINATORS AND 504 CASE MANAGERS

Upcoming April Webinar – Section 504, TBI, and Oregon’s ITAP

Tuesday, April 15th, 2025, 8:00 AM – 9:00 AM

Description: Using a case example, participants will learn and discuss

• Protections afforded under Section 504
• When a student with a concussion or traumatic brain injury (TBI) may become eligible under Section 504
• The difference between an immediate temporary accommodation plan (ITAP) and 504 Plan

The webinar will end with an optional open Q & A session that will go BEYOND the end time of 9:00. Please note that there is a registration limit. Once the webinar is full, registration will be closed.

Register here: Section 504, TBI, and Oregon’s ITAP Webinar

Upcoming May Webinar: Section 504, Change of Placement, Transitions, and Post-Secondary Institutions

Wednesday, May 8th, 2025, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Description: Participants will learn and discuss: 

• Districts’ obligations under Section 504 when there is a significant change of placement
• What may constitute a significant change of placement
• How to handle 504 plans when students transfer between districts
• The obligations of post-secondary institutions under Section 504

The webinar will end with an optional open Q & A session that will go BEYOND the end time of 4:00. Please note that there is a registration limit. Once the webinar is full, registration will be closed.

Register here: Section 504: Change of Placement, Transitions, and Post-Secondary Institutions Webinar

SY 2025-26 Section 504 Training Requests

ODE will offer various Section 504 trainings in the 2026 School Year, in an in-person or virtual format, depending on the training duration and anticipated audience.  If district or ESD leaders are interested in the available training opportunities, please email [email protected].

Topics include:

• Section 504 Foundations: 2 hours – Virtual district or regional training.
• Section 504 Deep Dive: 4 hours – In-Person regional training.
• Section 504 FAQ: 1 hour – Virtual district or regional training.
• Section 504 for General Educators: 1 hour – Virtual district training.

Recording: Section 504 for the General Education Teacher

The following ODE Section 504 learning video has been created and published to view. Please consider sharing with general educators in your school or district:

Section 504 Learning Series: Section 504 for the General Education Teacher

Contact Us

• Dr. Marinda Peters, Section 504 and Civil Rights Specialist at [email protected]

504 UPDATES SEPTEMBER

TRAINING SEPTEMBER 11, 2024

PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE IS NO SIGN UP, ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS SHOW UP FOR THE SESSION THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO ATTEND.

Dear 504 Coordinators,

Welcome back to a new school year! I hope you all had a restful summer and are ready for another successful year ahead.

I’m pleased to inform you that we have updated all of our 504 forms to better support our students’ needs. In addition, we will be introducing a new process for annual 504s that I believe will be a significant time saver for you.

To ensure everyone is familiar with these updates, we will be holding a mandatory training session. You can choose from one of three times on September 11, 2024: 8:15 AM, 10:30 AM, or 2:00 PM in the Board Room at the Education Center. 

Thank you for your continued dedication to our students. I look forward to seeing you at the training and to another year of great work together.

Best regards,

Josh

NEW 504 INFORMATION FINDING 504 STUDENTS

• STEP 1: Make sure your focus is to your site, not Bend-La Pine
• STEP 2: Go to SE Student (from the PAD TREE, little tree on the far left): Synergy SE>Student>SE Student
• STEP 3: On the Demographics Tab, select “6” on the Grade Drop Down.

• STEP 4: Go to the Teams Tab. Put an * (shift +8) in the staff name box and select “Case Manager” in the Role Drop Down.

• STEP 5: Go to the 504 Docs tab. Put an * (shift +8) “504 River Date” and “504 Re-evaluation Date

• STEP 6: Click on the Find button. A pop-up will appear, and you will see a list of students. Those with a date in the 504 Review and 504 Re-valuation tab will be your 504 students. Those students with no dates should be SPED Students. In very rare circumstances, there could be a 504 student with no dates. That would be if no paperwork has been finalized in a process. You can click on a students name to view that student in SE

TEAM,

We have over 200 504’s that are overdue! This is a friendly reminder to check your portfolios for 504’s files that are coming up due as well as past due and get them completed.  

Accommodations

Wording to avoid using in accommodations:
     Jamie can go to the (nurse/counselor) office as needed
     (Nurse/counselor) will be available for XYZ situation

Instead, use generic wording like:
     Follow the attached Health (etc) plan for emergency action plans, details, and additional protocols   
     Ability to access (preferred person, safe adult, space to decompress, etc.)

We now have a Spanish version of the 504 Meeting Packet,
You can access it through the Special Programs Portal/504 docs & forms.
Here’s the LINK to the Portal document. Download and save it to your desktop/504 folder or continue to access it at the Portal when needed.

A learning moment with Colleen:

504 Teaming Structures:
Team members should include student, parent/guardian, 504 coordinator, general education teachers and any other support staff such as admin, counselor, SPED staff or nurse. For initials or Re-evals do not make eligibility decisions alone.

Annual reviews:
Consider a system that collects general education teacher input before each annual review.  If a general education teacher cannot participate in the 504 meeting you can still share progress in classes as well as their recommendations for any needed or potentially unnecessary accommodations via email or phone call.

Caseload management
Convene a team, include all required team members, ask many questions and have many points of data to review.  Then it is much easier to determine if the plan is still needed or if the current plan is adequate and appropriate to meet the student’s needs.  I can’t stress enough how important it is to have the student at the table for these conversation and to collect current information from the students’ teachers. 

Considerations:

• Pick a day a month to hold all your annual review meetings for students due. This will require some coordination and planning and may not work for all families. 
• If you are the student’s counselor, if possible, have someone else be in the role of the 504 coordinator.

Reviewing Documents

• Teachers can see the 504 Accommodations plan in TeacherVue as long as the plan has been finalized.
• Parents can see 504 Accommodations Plan (verified with IT, should be working now) in ParentVue, located under Special Education tab
• Students can see 504 Accommodations Plan in StudentVue

504 Tips

“504 coordinators you may have noticed a new form pop up in each process called “Meeting Notes and Attendance.” You can utilize this synergy based form instead of our printed out notes and attendance. If you choose to use this form in synergy you will still need to make sure the student/family receive the “Parents Rights and Grievance Procedures.” In addition, you may still utilize the paper forms for attendance and notes if you prefer.”

Initial Evaluation 504

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS:

1. Meeting attendance: upload to Synergy
2. Meeting notes:upload into Synergy
3. Procedural safeguards: go home with parent
4. Grievance procedures: go home with parent

Once all forms are signed and ready to upload, scan to Lisa Mills via email for review. After Lisa reviews the information, she will email back and let you know to finalize the students file.

Process:

1. referral:suspected disability via child find
2. Parental consent:obtain parent consent for evaluation. During team meeting
3. Evaluation: obtain data regarding disability and accommodations
4. Eligibility:Team determines if data reflects a substantial limitation of a MLA
5. Accommodation Plan: if needed, write a plan for FAPE using the accommodation data

Please wait to finalize the file until you hear back from Lisa Mills