New Hampshire College Disability Accommodations After IEP: What Changes and What Doesn't

The Legal Framework Flips Completely

The single most important thing for New Hampshire families to understand about the college disability transition: the legal framework that protects your child changes entirely.

In K-12, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) entitles students with disabilities to a Free Appropriate Public Education. The school district has to find eligible students (Child Find), evaluate them at no cost, write an IEP, and provide services. The burden is on the school. If they don't deliver, parents have due process rights, state complaint mechanisms, and legal recourse.

In college, IDEA doesn't apply. Instead, students are covered by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). These laws prohibit discrimination — they require colleges to provide reasonable accommodations — but they do not require the college to design an individualized education program, provide specialized instruction, or modify the fundamental nature of a course.

The burden shifts entirely to the student. The college won't come looking for them. There is no Child Find obligation. The student must self-identify to the disability services office, provide documentation of their disability, request specific accommodations, and advocate for themselves when those accommodations aren't being implemented.

What Carries Over and What Doesn't

What does NOT transfer to college:

• The IEP itself — colleges don't recognize or implement IEPs
• Specialized instruction (modified curriculum, resource room, pull-out services)
• 1:1 aides or paraprofessionals
• Behavioral intervention plans
• Related services like speech therapy, occupational therapy, or counseling (unless the college provides these through its own student health services)
• The school district's obligation to evaluate and re-evaluate at no cost

What the student IS entitled to at college:

• Reasonable accommodations that provide equal access — extended test time, note-taking assistance, accessible formats for course materials, priority registration, reduced course loads
• Auxiliary aids — screen readers, FM systems, captioning
• Housing accommodations — single rooms, proximity to accessible facilities, emotional support animal exceptions
• Protection from discrimination based on disability in admissions, programs, and activities

The key word is "reasonable." A college does not have to fundamentally alter a program, lower academic standards, or provide accommodations that create an undue financial or administrative burden.

The Documentation Question

New Hampshire high school students typically have extensive documentation: evaluations, IEPs, progress reports, and years of accommodation records. Some of that documentation is useful for college; some of it isn't.

What college disability services offices typically need:

• A current diagnostic evaluation, if the institution requires one — documentation standards vary by institution and disability type. Ask the disability services office what it accepts; an older evaluation may not establish a current disability or need for accommodations.
• Documentation of the disability's functional impact — not just a diagnosis, but a clear statement of how the disability affects the student's ability to access the academic environment
• History of accommodations — what accommodations the student received in high school and which ones were effective
• The Summary of Performance (SOP) — under IDEA, the school district must provide an SOP when a student exits special education. This document summarizes the student's disability, accommodations, and recommendations for postsecondary settings. In New Hampshire, the SOP is typically prepared during the student's final year of eligibility.

Some colleges accept the IEP and evaluation reports as sufficient documentation. Others require a separate evaluation at the family's expense. Contact the disability services office at the specific institution early — during junior or senior year of high school — to ask what documentation they need. Don't assume.

New Hampshire-Specific Considerations

Community College System of New Hampshire (CCSNH). The seven community colleges (White Mountains, Lakes Region, NHTI, Manchester, Nashua, Great Bay, River Valley) each have their own disability services coordinator. These offices tend to be small — sometimes a single coordinator serving hundreds of students — but they're generally experienced with students transitioning from IEPs. Contact the coordinator at the campus your student plans to attend, not the system office.

University System of New Hampshire. UNH, Plymouth State, and Keene State each have student accessibility offices. UNH's Student Accessibility Services, for instance, requires documentation of the disability and a meeting with a coordinator to develop an accommodation plan. The accommodation plan is not an IEP — it's a letter listing approved accommodations that the student must deliver to each professor at the start of each semester.

Private institutions. Colleges like Colby-Sawyer, Saint Anselm, New England College, and Franklin Pierce have disability services offices with varying levels of staffing and experience. Some offer more structured support (regular meetings with a learning specialist, tutoring programs, executive function coaching) as fee-based add-on services beyond the legally required accommodations.

The Self-Advocacy Requirement

This is where transition planning either pays off or doesn't. In college, the student — not the parent — must:

• Register with the disability services office and provide documentation
• Meet with the disability coordinator to discuss accommodations
• Deliver accommodation letters to each professor, every semester
• Communicate with professors when accommodations aren't being provided
• Request adjustments if their needs change
• Re-register or renew accommodations each semester or year (policies vary)

Parents generally need the student's authorization to communicate with the college on the student's behalf, although FERPA permits limited exceptions, such as when the student is a tax dependent. A parent who calls the disability services office saying "my child needs accommodations" may be directed to have the student call or authorize disclosure.

This is exactly why building self-advocacy skills during high school matters. A student who has practiced leading their IEP meeting, explaining their disability to adults, and requesting accommodations has the foundation. A student who has never done any of this is walking into a system designed for self-directed adults with no preparation.

Timing the College Disability Transition

The transition should start during the student's junior year of high school (or earlier if the student is planning to exit before age 18):

• Junior year: Research colleges, contact disability services offices, ask about documentation requirements, visit campuses with an eye toward accessibility
• Senior year: Submit accommodation requests and documentation as early as the college allows (often during or shortly after admission), attend orientation sessions for students with disabilities, connect with the disability coordinator before classes start
• Summer before college: The student should have an accommodation plan in place, know who their coordinator is, and have practiced the process of delivering accommodation letters to professors

The New Hampshire IEP Transition to Adulthood Guide includes a college disability transition timeline with month-by-month steps, a documentation checklist, and a comparison chart showing how IEP accommodations translate (or don't) to college settings.

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