Bill Supporting College Students With Disabilities Advances

Members of Congress from both parties are trying to tear down red tape for college students with disabilities. The Senate passed a bill Monday that would ensure students who receive services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act during their K–12 years don’t have to undergo more testing or evaluations to qualify for accommodations in college.

Instead, the legislation—known as the Respond, Innovate, Succeed, and Empower (RISE) Act—would allow students to use previous documentation such as their individualized education programs or 504 plans as proof of disability when seeking accommodations.

Sens. Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican; Maggie Hassan, a New Hampshire Democrat; and Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, introduced the bill in the high chamber. There has also been bipartisan support in the House, where Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, an Oregon Democrat, has been introducing an identical bill for years.

“Students with disabilities shouldn’t have to pay for costly and duplicative testing to prove a disability that they’ve already documented,” Banks said in a news release. About 15 percent of public K–12 students are eligible for support under IDEA, the release noted. 

Advocates for students with disabilities say they’ve spent more than a decade trying to get it passed.

“A student’s disability doesn’t change when they graduate from high school, so why should they have to prove it all over again? That’s the problem the RISE Act addresses,” Jacqueline Rodriguez, CEO of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, said in a release applauding the bill.

Bonamici told Inside Higher Ed that she’s talking to her colleagues in the House about how to get a vote on the legislation in the last few weeks of Congress; new lawmakers take over in January.

“This legislation has long had bipartisan support in the House,” she said. “I’m optimistic we will be able to get it passed on suspension or have it come up for a vote with bipartisan support.”

In addition to closing the loophole that allows colleges to require separate diagnostic testing, the RISE Act would also require colleges to make their policies for disability services more transparent, mandate the collection of data about college students with disabilities in the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and authorize funds for technical assistance to help colleges and universities support those with disabilities.