Your IEP doesn't come with you. Here's the email to send.
IEP and 504 plans end at high school graduation. College accommodations start when you register with disability services. The exact email, the documents, and the timeline.
Here’s the thing nobody put on a form for you: the IEP or 504 plan you had in high school ended the day you graduated. It does not transfer. Your college doesn’t have it and isn’t required to honor it.
College accommodations exist, and they can be solid: extended time, reduced- distraction testing, note-taking support, priority registration. But they run on a different law and a different system, and that system starts with one step only you can take: registering with your college’s disability services office. Nobody initiates this except you. The college won’t chase you, and your parents can’t do it for you.
The good news: the whole thing usually starts with one email. Here it is.
The email
Find the office first. Search your college’s site for “disability services,” “accessibility services,” or “student access office” — every school names it differently. Grab the email address, then send this:
Subject: Registering for accommodations — incoming student
Hello,
My name is [name], and I’m an incoming student starting in [term, year]. I received accommodations in high school under an IEP [or 504 plan] and I’d like to register with your office to set up accommodations for college.
Could you tell me what documentation you need, and whether I should schedule an intake appointment? I can provide my most recent evaluation and a copy of my previous plan.
Thank you, [name] [student ID, if you have one]
That’s the whole ask. You don’t have to explain your diagnosis or argue your case in this email. Its only job is to start the file, and it works fine sent at 1am. Sent counts.
The documents
Every office sets its own requirements, and they’ll tell you exactly what they want when they reply. Have these ready:
- Your most recent psychoeducational or neuropsychological evaluation. Many offices want one from the last three years. If yours is older, ask the office whether it still works before paying for new testing — policies differ more than you’d expect.
- A copy of your IEP or 504 plan. Not sufficient by itself at most schools, but it shows what you actually used, which shapes what they offer.
- Anything from a prescribing or treating clinician, if the office asks for current documentation.
If you can’t find your evaluation, your high school’s special education office can usually send records — that request is also one email, and it gets slower after staff leave for the summer.
The timeline
- Send the email the summer before, as soon as you’ve committed to a school. Intake plus document review commonly takes several weeks.
- Accommodations are not retroactive. They start when your letters go out, not when the semester started. A week-six registration can’t fix a week-three exam.
- Already on campus and never registered? Send the same email today. The office does this in October too; later is a real option, unregistered is the expensive one.
One more thing worth knowing: in college, your accommodation letters go where you send them. Instructors see the accommodations, not the diagnosis, and your parents are not part of the file unless you put them there.
If it helps to walk in with a clear picture of what you actually used in high school, Scholexis has a private accommodations tracker — check off what you had, and bring the list to your intake appointment. It stays yours: nothing is shared with anyone unless you choose to share it.