Documentation Standards

Documentation of a disability may come from different sources but begins with the individual's own report and is supplemented by medical information from clinical providers, educational evaluations, faculty observations, or from other support systems that can shed light on the challenges that need to be addressed. This documentation helps our office use its expertise and experience to determine the types of accommodations and services needed. 

Proper medical documentation and educational assessment is essential to understanding the functional challenges that students are experiencing and must be submitted in order to receive accommodations. Students who find provision of documentation to be a barrier may contact or be referred to the Office of Disability Services for consultation and advice. You may also contact our office if you have any other related questions. 

If you are a new student, we advise updating and gathering relevant documentation during the spring of your senior year in high school so that you can meet the June 1 deadline for housing requests and/or the August 1 deadline for academic requests. If you need an exception to the stated deadlines, please contact us. 

It is your responsibility to obtain and supply the college with all necessary disability information. The college does not provide full testing or evaluation. If needed, we can assist you in finding local providers or clinicians who can do psychoeducational testing. Clear, comprehensive, and current documentation must be submitted with sufficient time for it to be reviewed and for any necessary accommodations to be arranged. Insufficient information or late documentation may result in delays in receiving accommodations. 

ODS does not have access to information you provided to Counseling Services or Health Services. You must make a formal request and sign a release in order for them to send it to us.

For All Disabilities

Criteria and Standards

In order for information/documentation to be complete, each of the following items must be included:

• Diagnosis and corresponding code. 

• Date the diagnosis was made. 

• Brief description of the course of treatment (how long the provider has known the person).

• Date and nature of the provider's most recent contact with the person.

• Specific information regarding the assessment and evaluation procedures used.

• Any relevant scores from tests administered (for learning disabilities). 

• Brief description of the current manifestations of symptoms, including nature and severity. 

• Duration for which the functional limitations are expected to continue. 

• A statement of the major life domains impacted by the disability (seeing, hearing, mobility, communication, cognition, self-care, learning, etc). 

• A statement of how the disability and/or related medication and treatments interfere with or limit any facet of major life activity including participating in work, courses, programs, services, or other activities of the college. 

• Information regarding any current medication, including dosage and frequency.

• A description of accommodations provided in the past.

• Additional information that may be useful in providing appropriate and effective accommodations at the post-secondary level.

• Explanation of the correlation between the disability and the specific accommodations requested. 

• If the provider's perspective confirms that the condition(s) rise to the level of disability. 

• The diagnostician's name, title, license type, address, phone number, and signature.

We Do Not Accept

• Brief notes from doctors that simply request an accommodation with no other information. 

• Information or notes written on a prescription pad.

• Copies of aftercare instruction given to patients.

• Documentation of a learning disability which is not comprehensive or which identifies learning "problems or challenges," but does not specifically diagnose a learning disability.

• Some medical documentation or testing for learning disabilities in grades K-12 under special education programs which meet the requirements of individual states. Please contact us to discuss details. 

• There are many online services set up for the purpose of quick provision of documentation; what these services provide is not always accurate or complete regarding assessment of need for ESAs, ADHD/neuropsych conditions, Learning Disabilities, etc. Because the goal of documentation is for us to better understand you, we value communication that comes from providers with whom you have real time interactions and ongoing relationships. If you have any concerns or questions about what will be sufficient documentation, please reach out to us to discuss ahead of time.

Other Relevant Information

• Our office recognizes the incredibly complex history related to the development of intelligence tests and other "standard" measures, and the ways in which results can be impacted by unjust societal power dynamics.  

• Our office recognizes the multiplicity of world cultures which have a variety of supports for health and wellbeing, and which do not always include mainstream providers. If you have cultural considerations you would like to discuss in terms of documentation or accommodations, we would be happy to talk with you. Please contact us to set up a time. 

• To consider documentation "current," it must be accurate. Please note that while our office does not make a blanket statement about exact timeline, a frequent standard for graduate schools and GREs, etc., is within the past three years. Please be aware that we may accept documentation that might be considered out of date in other contexts, and it is your responsibility to obtain what you need in a timely way for other programs.  

• Disability information is not reviewed to assess the need for medical or clinical intervention or remedial educational services. 

• Clinical consultation to correct or remediate specific learning or medical problems is not provided or paid for by the college.

• For Learning Disabilities specifically, the college generally requests comprehensive psychoeducational testing, full neuropsychological evaluation, and/or tests that measure aptitude, achievement, information processing, short/long term memory, visual and auditory speed, and reading. These tests may include the Wechsler WAIS-R, The Woodcock-Johnson Revised, WJ-R, TASK, WIAT II, TOWL-2, the Nelson-Denny Reading Test, the Stanford Diagnostic Mathematics Test, and others. 

• The Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised (WRAT) is not a comprehensive measure. 

• Please contact us with any additional questions.