At age 13, I was diagnosed with several learning disorders and mental health issues. It was both a shock and nothing new. I had always been ahead of my class in school; how could I be disabled? Turns out being disabled and working harder than your peers is common, if not a constant. So, they sat me down in a room with a lady I’d never met, my teachers, the vice principal, and my mom. It was time to create a 504 plan.

For those unfamiliar, 504 refers to the section of federal law that legally requires accommodations for anyone with a disability in a federally funded program (“The Civil Rights of Students With Hidden Disabilities and Section 504” n.d.). I then received accommodations for those disabilities as a middle schooler.

My therapist put it this way: paying attention, reading, and learning was like running an entire football field while everyone else just ran one yard. The accommodations were supposed to level the playing field or shorten my sprint. It still required work on my part: extra classes, training, listening to these weird CDs for audio processing, and learning how to manage my emotions. 

The 504 meant hearing from teachers about what they were worried about and where they noticed these disabilities were affecting me. It meant finding what technology could help me, it meant testing my hearing despite it being a processing disorder, and it meant having the extra breaks I needed when I needed them. 

There were still many complications, and years later I am still jumping through hoops to make even just my small slice of the world better. However, that one 504 plan took me from being labeled as unorganized and disinterested to a depressed kid with learning issues. It explained; it didn’t excuse, but it offered me solutions instead of deciding it was a personal failure of mine. It took me off a ledge and gave me newer, brighter yards to run. 

I also learned that I wasn’t alone, this process wasn’t new, and that people before me had to fight for their education to continue. Fifteen percent of the entire public school student population is disabled, requiring 504s, IEPs, and para pros (“COE – Students With Disabilities” n.d.). But why am I talking about 504s and my experience now?

Over the past two Trump administrations, there has been a severe weakening of these 504 protections, defunding of workers who handle cases, and moving the Office of Civil Rights out of the Education Department (Ma 2026). Weakening of the federal protections led to more recent issues like certain states’ (Texas, Alaska, and Florida) decision to contest section 504 and the integration mandate (“Texas V. Kennedy Update” 2026) (Dredf and Dredf 2026). 

The Integration Mandate is relatively new to the 504 code but is just as important: “People with disabilities have a right to live, work, and get services in the community” (“Texas V. Kennedy Update” 2026). A sentence like that shouldn’t be so controversial. Regardless of how politicians justify contesting mandates like the Integration Mandate, stripping away these protections is a big ‘fuck you’ to disabled people.

I don’t have time to get into the whole history of eugenics here, but to be clear, removal of these protections plays a significant role historically in these lines of thinking. And while I received a 504 plan before this mandate, I still receive accommodations in college that wouldn’t be possible without these codes. In fact, ideas like “people with disabilities have a right to live” are the whole reason I am here writing this essay to you today, especially during Suicide Prevention Month (National Alliance on Mental Illness 2026). 

A diagnosis saved me, and so did the following 504 plan and accommodations; they allowed me to live and to earn an education the same way everyone else does. Moves like the Trump admin have made are a clear attack on disabled people’s rights. Remember the fifteen percent?  That is seven million four hundred and forty thousand students in American public schools who are disabled and no less deserving of an education nor a life (National Center for Education Statistics, n.d.) (“COE – Students With Disabilities” n.d.).

– The Tadpole

Bibliography

“COE – Students With Disabilities.” n.d. Accessed September 19, 2026. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cgg/students-with-disabilities.

Dredf, and Dredf. 2026. “Statement of National Disability Organizations on the Department of Justice’s Proposed Resolution of Texas v. Kennedy.” DREDF. September 1, 2026. Accessed September 19, 2026. https://dredf.org/statement-texas-v-kennedy-september-2026/.

Ma, Annie [Associated Press]. 2026. “Trump Moves Special Education and Civil Rights Oversight Out of Education Department.” PBS. June 16, 2026. Accessed September 19, 2026. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/education/trump-moves-special-education-and-civil-rights-oversight-out-of-education-department.

National Alliance on Mental Illness. 2026. “Suicide Prevention Month | NAMI.” August 31, 2026. Accessed September 19, 2026. https://www.nami.org/stay-connected/events/awareness-events/suicide-prevention-month/.

National Center for Education Statistics. n.d. “Fast Facts: Back-to-school Statistics (372).” https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372.

“Texas V. Kennedy Update.” 2026. Autistic Self Advocacy Network. September 9, 2026. Accessed September 19, 2026. https://autisticadvocacy.org/2026/09/texas-v-kennedy-update/.

“The Civil Rights of Students With Hidden Disabilities and Section 504.” n.d. U.S. Department of Education. Accessed September 8, 2026. https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/individuals-disabilities/section-504/civil-rights-of-students-hidden-disabilities-and-section-504.