ADA and Section 504

Section 504 is a condition of federal money. It applies to any program or activity that receives federal financial assistance, which includes nearly every public district and most colleges through federal student aid. The ADA applies regardless of funding. Title II covers state and local government entities, including public districts and public colleges. Title III covers places of public accommodation, which reaches many private schools and private institutions. Title I covers employers with 15 or more employees.

The two laws use the same definition of disability: a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity, a record of such an impairment, or being regarded as having one. Since the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, that definition is read broadly, and the question is rarely whether a person qualifies. The question is whether the institution responded correctly.

An institution covered by both should run one program that meets the stricter requirement on each point, not two parallel systems.

A recipient of federal financial assistance that employs 15 or more people must designate at least one employee to coordinate its Section 504 compliance and must adopt grievance procedures. Under ADA Title II, a public entity with 50 or more employees carries the same two duties. Both laws also require public notice that the institution does not discriminate, with the coordinator's name or title and contact information.

The designation is the easy part. The coordinator needs the authority to decide accommodation questions, the time to run the process, and a reporting line that is not also the source of the complaint. A coordinator named on paper but without authority is a common finding in Office for Civil Rights resolutions.

For districts, Section 504 carries duties beyond accommodation. A district must locate and evaluate students who may have a disability, provide a free appropriate public education, make placement decisions through a group of people who know the student, and give families procedural safeguards, including an impartial hearing. Section 504 reaches more students than the IDEA, because a student can qualify without needing specialized instruction. Districts most often fall short when building teams decide by category, apply a grade threshold, or treat a 504 plan as a lesser version of an IEP. More on that in what PK-12 teams get wrong about Section 504 and the ADA.

Colleges are not required to find students, and they do not owe a free appropriate public education. Students request accommodations, and the institution decides through the interactive process. The recurring problems sit outside the disability services office: employee accommodations with no clear owner, grievances routed back to the office that made the decision, and faculty who adjust or refuse approved accommodations in their own courses.

The Department of Justice's 2024 rule sets WCAG 2.1 Level AA as the standard for the web content and mobile apps of state and local government entities, including public districts and public colleges. In April 2026, the Department extended the compliance dates by one year:

April 26, 2027: public entities serving 50,000 or more people.

April 26, 2028: public entities serving fewer than 50,000 people, and special districts.

The extension is time to build a program, not a reason to wait. Course materials, posted documents, and newly procured software are where institutions fall back out of compliance. What the delay changes, and what it does not, is set out in a deadline moved, a deadline did not.

We serve as the ADA and Section 504 Coordinator for districts, colleges, and employers that need the role filled with time and authority behind it. We run the interactive process, keep the grievance procedure separate, build the record a review will ask for, and train the staff who meet these questions first. See ADA and Section 504 coordinator services for how an engagement works and published retainer rates.