Attendance

All students, regardless of a disability, are responsible for fulfilling the essential requirements of their courses/programs/degrees, including attendance expectations. However, some students have serious health-related disabilities which may impact attendance due to their episodic nature.

While no accommodation exists that waives attendance due to disability, the attendance accommodation provides reasonable flexibility with course attendance policies to qualified students who have disability-related absences. Students must meet with a DS counselor to discuss the attendance accommodation and potential implications of missing class (i.e. missed notes, greater difficulty in understanding the material) before the accommodation is set up in the DS Portal. Because course policies are set by faculty, students with the attendance accommodation are responsible for understanding the attendance policy for each course in which they are enrolled. Students are responsible for notifying faculty and their DS counselor of each disability-related absence within 24-48 hours. Students are also responsible for making up missed work in a timely manner and should understand that excessive absences can negatively impact grades. If absences become excessive, the student is responsible for talking with his/her professor and DS counselor to determine options. In rare cases an attendance accommodation may not be feasible.

The attendance accommodation does not permit unlimited absences and is not applied retroactively. Health conditions not on record with Disability Services or non-disability related absences are not subject to the attendance accommodation.