Documentation Standards
To provide reasonable and appropriate academic accommodations, AES requires documentation which shows current disabilities and their impact on a student’s ability to function within an academic environment. Therefore, the documentation the student provides to AES must meet the following requirements:
Documentation must be current. The determination of what is current documentation depends on the nature of the disability and the degree to which the disability changes over time. However, in most cases the documentation should have been done within the last three years. AES reserves the right to require more recent documentation.
The name, title and professional credentials of the evaluator including information about license or certification, as well as area of specialization, employment, and the state in which the individual practices must be listed. Professionals conducting the evaluation/assessment must be qualified and have experience working with late adolescent/adult populations.
Reports must be on letterhead, typed, dated, and have an original signature of the evaluator. Reports must be in English or translated into English by a qualified translator.
Reports need to include the names of any standardized tests administered, the scores derived and a discussion of the results that clearly indicates the presence of a disability. These tests must be evaluated using adult norms. AES reserves the right to determine which tests are acceptable for diagnosing the disability in question.
The report must clearly state the presence of the specific disability. Terms such as "suggest" or "is indicative of" which are not definitive are not acceptable.
The evaluator must describe the impact of the diagnosed disability on specific major life functions/activities (especially as it relates to academic performance).
A clinical diagnosis is not synonymous with a disability. That is, evidence sufficient to render a clinical diagnosis may not be adequate to determine that an individual is "substantially limited" in a major life function. The documentation must include the individual's specific current functional impairment(s) and describe how the disorder/impairment substantially limits one or more major life activities in order for AES to evaluate the necessity for academic accommodations, auxiliary aids or services.
If the documentation submitted does not address the student's current impairment or describe how the disorder/impairment substantially limits one or more major life activities, AES will require additional documentation before providing services.
The diagnostic report should include specific recommendations for reasonable academic accommodations and a detailed rationale for each recommendation as related to the specific functional limitations.
If medications are taken in conjunction with the disability, these should be listed as well as their potential side effects.
If the student's symptoms involve cognitive processing, appropriate testing needs to be conducted. Testing for specific learning disabilities may be appropriate to allow the best accommodations.
A note on a doctor's prescription pad or a school plan such as an Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) or a 504 Plan is not sufficient documentation in and of itself but may be included as part of a more comprehensive evaluative report.
It must be understood that these evaluations and the recommendations in them do not automatically qualify a student for registration with AES or for the recommended accommodations in the evaluations.
AES will make the final decision as to whether academic accommodations are needed and can be provided to the student without undue expense or without fundamentally altering IU Indianapolis's programs.
Please bring your documentation with you to your scheduled Intake Interview.
The above categories of disabilities and appropriate types of documentation were adopted with minor modifications from the University of Central Florida's Student Disability Services Website.
Confidentiality of Records
For many students an important consideration before providing information on their disabilities is whether that information will be kept confidential. The answer is yes. IU Indianapolis and all other public institutions of higher education are bound by FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) regarding the privacy of student records. Even parents may be excluded from access to students’ records, depending on the age and financial relation of the individuals as defined by the IRS.
Furthermore, AES records are kept separately from students’ academic records, so while the latter can be circulated for academic reasons both inside and outside the university, AES records may not. Additionally, when faculty or schools at IU Indianapolis contact AES regarding accommodations or waivers, AES only releases the functional limitations of the students, not their documentation. Their specific disability, or other AES records. Students may sign a FERPA Consent to Release Information waiver, requesting AES to release specific information to specific individuals. No services or accommodation depends on the release of information.