This story was reported and written by VPM News.
Virginia lawmakers recently advanced a proposal seeking to streamline documentation universities require from students asking for accommodations.
The legislation, sponsored by Del. Laura Jane Cohen (D-Fairfax), would require all public colleges and universities to accept any student’s Individualized Education Program updated in the last three years of high school as proof of their disability.
The bill aims to eliminate the need for an “unnecessary, often costly psychological or medical evaluation for students with previously documented disabilities,” Cohen said in a Wednesday committee meeting.
Though the bill doesn’t have a fiscal impact, it’s been referred to an appropriations committee — though it’s unclear when it will be heard.
Cohen, whose child with autism is a sophomore at Virginia Commonwealth University, said she heard from other families whose kids were applying to state colleges and were having to repeatedly prove a student’s disability in order to receive accommodations.
She said some schools even developed a reputation for “being particularly tough on kids with disabilities, in terms of asking them question after question and proof after proof, and whatever they had presented seemed never to be enough.”
Cohen said that meant some students were choosing not to apply to certain colleges and universities — if any.
“That, to me, as a parent and former teacher, just felt horrible,” she said. “I think that [colleges] did not realize that by continuing to make students try to prove that they have a disability again and again and again … what signal that that's showing about welcoming and acceptance.”
Requesting additional documentation
Since IEPs have to be updated every three years under federal law, Cohen hopes the bill’s language will translate into colleges accepting most students’ IEPs, regardless of when their disability diagnosis was received.
But it could mean some students and their families would still be on the hook to provide additional documentation.
That’s what happened to Sarahbeth Dreis’ family.
Dreis, a staff member at the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia who worked on the organization’s disability eligibility report, said her parents had to pay around $4,000 for her brother to get additional psychological testing to prove his disability for college admission. That’s because his disability was determined as an elementary school student at a public school; he then went to a private school for middle and high school, where IEPs aren’t required.
“Those are the kinds of stories that you hear from students, from families,” Dreis told VPM News.
Ellie Bavuso said she had to get additional testing while studying at VCU to prove she had autism, because it wasn’t something she’d officially been diagnosed with before.
She also needed an official diagnosis to get a stenographer accommodation for the dysgraphia she experienced, which caused muscle cramps in her hands and made it difficult to hold a pencil.
But Bavuso said it took months to get the testing done.
“Luckily, I had a very kind advisor, and he was like, ‘I will scribe for you for this specific class until you get your documentation,’” Bavuso said.
Another part of Cohen’s legislation would also require colleges to honor accommodations temporarily for situations similar to Bavuso’s — when students are waiting on testing and documentation, but are enrolled in classes they need help with.
‘Why change?’
Similar legislation was introduced in 2024, but instead resulted in a study being conducted. That study was published this past fall and recommended universities accept a student’s IEP if it’s up to three years old.
Sen. Saddam Azlan Salim (D-Fairfax) told VPM News he was disappointed the SCHEV study didn’t explicitly state what documentation different universities accepted — or didn’t — when acknowledging a student’s disability.
He said he’d heard from constituents who had trouble transferring from one university to another, because of inconsistencies in requirements regarding proof of disabilities.
At the same time, Salim said he was hearing from schools that were resistant to standardizing the documentation process. The sentiment they expressed was that they were happy with their current procedures, so “why change?”
Additionally, Salim said some wanted to have the discretion to request further documentation if they thought it was necessary.
Last fall, VPM News asked all four-year public colleges and universities in the commonwealth if they accepted students’ three-year-old IEPs as proof of a disability without requiring additional testing.
Some colleges said they did, while others said they’d require additional documentation. Not all colleges responded.
Emily Salmon, assistant director of Strategic Planning and Policy Studies at SCHEV, pointed out another recommendation of the organization’s recent report was to fund and scale more transition programs to help students with disabilities move from high school to college.
“The earlier that transition work can happen, the better off the student and their family are in understanding and navigating not just college life, but the services that are available potentially to them in higher education,” Salmon said.
Pranaya Sripathi, a recent VCU graduate, said she also hopes colleges will work harder to make life on campus more seamless for students with disabilities. She was part of the SCHEV workgroup that convened as a result of last year’s legislation.
Sripathi said her best friend uses a wheelchair and had a hard time getting to some of her field assignments because of lack of transportation. Her friend also had to live in a freshman dorm during her junior and senior years because other dorms didn’t have necessary accommodations.
“These are things that my friends actually had to physically go through,” Sripathi said. “So, I really want to make sure that no one else has to go through something like that.”
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