Information for Prospective/New Students
Welcome to Kennesaw State University! This site is intended to provide the information that you need in order to register with Disabled Student Support Services and arrange necessary accommodations. Please read all of the following and make sure that you have all of the required information and documents. At the end, you will find a link to contact this office and make an appointment for an intake interview.
NOTE: Students taking courses on-line or at other sites than the main campus should contact the Disabled Student Support Services office by phone (770-423-6443) or email (cpope@kennesaw.edu) to make arrangements to submit documentation, register with the department, arrange accommodations, etc. Accommodations and services at remote locations may require additional time to arrange, so please start early.
1. Gather all of your diagnostic information - the documents that provide the official diagnosis of your disability. Check to see if they meet the University System requirements for documenting a disability. Other information such as IEPs can be helpful but will not serve as an official diagnosis.
2. Make an appointment to meet with Carol for 30 minutes for an intake interview to review your documentation.
3. For documentation that must meet University System requirements, you will be asked to sign a release giving permission to send your documentation to the Regents Center for Learning Disorders for review and approval. For other types of documentation, the review and approval may be completed on site.
3. If your documentation must be reviewed by the RCLD, you will receive a letter regarding the RCLD's review of your documentation once the review has been completed. If your documentation meets University system requirements, you need to schedule another meeting with Carol to finish the paperwork required to register with Disabled Student Support Services at KSU. If your documentation does not meet University System requirements, it is your responsibility to obtain and provide the additional information needed.
4. That's it! You are now officially registered with Disabled Student Support Services and approved for certain specific accommodations while attending KSU.
The University System of Georgia requires that students who are requesting accommodations provide appropriate documentation of their disability. Providing the necessary documentation is the responsibility of the student, not the institution.
Documentation must meet University System requirements in order to be accepted. Documentation requirements are listed below.
For learning disorders, attention disorders, psychiatric disorders, or acquired brain injuries that affect cognitive functions --
The Regents Center for Learning Disorders (RCLD) must review evaluations that were not done by the RCLD to determine whether or not they meet University System requirements. When you come for your intake interview, you will be asked to sign a release to send your evaluation to the RCLD for review. This review process can take several weeks, so please start early.
If your evaluation was done at the RCLD, or if it has already been approved by the RCLD through another institution, please bring that information to your intake interview. Your documentation will not need to be reviewed again.
If you have been attending another higher education institution but your evaluation has not been approved by the RCLD, please bring your list of approved accommodations from that institution as well as your evaluation to your intake interview.
If your documentation is reviewed and does not meet the University System requirements, it is your responsibility to obtain the additional testing/evaluation. You may choose any of several methods to obtain a new evaluation. (1) Check with your insurance company to see if your insurance will pay for a new evaluation. Be sure to direct the evaluator to the RCLD website for documentation requirements. (2) You may return to the person who did the initial evaluation for an updated evaluation or for the additional information needed as defined in the letter from the RCLD. (3) You may have a new evaluation done at the Regents Center for Learning Disorders for a cost of $500. You start this process by picking up a testing packet from the KSU disAbled Student Support Services office. New/additional documentation must be submitted to the RCLD for a new review.
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Learning Disability Learning disabilities are documented by a psychoeducational evaluation. The diagnostic requirements can be found at www.gsu.edu/rcld/documentation.htm. If you are currently seeing the psychologist who did your diagnosis, check first to see if your evaluation meets these criteria. As a general rule, evaluations done through or for the public education system are missing the identification of a cognitive processing deficit.
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Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder ADHD can be documented by an official letter from your psychologist/psychiatrist that includes the seven required items. These requirements can also be found at www.gsu.edu/rcld/documentation.htm.
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Psychiatric Disorders Psychiatric disorders may include, but are not limited to: depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, panic disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, eating disorders, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, personality disorders, and substance-related disorders. Specific anxiety disorders such as test anxiety or public speaking anxiety are not considered disabilities unless they rise to the level of a phobia. For consideration
for institutional accommodations, you must provide current documentation
which includes an evaluation by an appropriate licensed professional (psychiatrist,
licensed psychologist, neurologist) with expertise and training in psychiatric
diagnosis.
System-level accommodations must be approved by the RCLD.
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Acquired Brain Injury Acquired brain impairment may manifest in a variety of physical disabilities as well as cognitive disabilities. Documentation will be reviewed based on the specific disabling condition. Students with acquired brain impairment who have cognitive deficits may be eligible for the same accommodations as students with learning disabilities. The student must provide appropriate documentation of his/her medical history and cognitive deficits and abilities as related to academic functioning for institutional accommodations. Otherwise, students with acquired brain impairment must be evaluated and approved by a Regents Center for Learning Disorders in order to be eligible for exceptions to Regents' Policy and Procedures. The Regents Center for Learning Disorders may review the student's existing documentation and may require additional testing. |
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For other disorders, the documentation does not have to be reviewed by the RCLD.
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Vision/Hearing/Manual/Motor Impairments Students with specific physical disabilites that require some modification or accommodation of academic activities must present documentation from a qualified professional with expertise in the specific disability. The documentation must -
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Health Impairments Students with specific
health impairments that will affect their academic functioning must provide
documentation from a licensed medical professional that includes the following
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Many of the policies and procedures for serving students with disabilities change dramatically from high school to college. You may, or may not, be eligible for the same or similar accommodations that you had in high school. However, high school records can be very helpful in figuring out strategies that are more likely to work for you.
The intake interview begins the process of registering for accommodations at KSU. Your documentation will be reviewed for currency and completeness. Then you will be asked to sign a release to have your documentation sent to the Regents Center for Learning Disorders for review and approval. We will go over some of the processes and procedures for utilizing accommodations, and we will also discuss some strategies that will help you be a more successful student. I will answer as many questions as I can and direct you to the right person to answer any questions that I can't answer. I will also help you with planning your schedule for the next semester, if needed.
At your second interview, you will complete the form that is your official registration with Disabled Student Support Services. This form provides some basic information about you, the accommodations for which you have been approved, and a "confidential information release" that allows me to use the information you have provided in order to arrange your accommodations. We will discuss your specific accommodations and how those accommodations are to be arranged each semester.
All system-level accommodations must be approved by the Regents Center for Learning Disorders. These include:
Other accommodations will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may, or may not, require RCLD approval.
TRANSITIONING FROM HIGH SCHOOL TO COLLEGE
Remember, you are entering a different educational system when you transition from high school to postsecondary education. Many of the requirements, policies, procedures, and accommodations will be different. Take a moment to review the information regarding transitioning on the Department of Education's website at www.ed..gov/about/offices/list/ocr/transition.html. We will work with you to make your transition as smooth as possible.
To schedule an intake interview, please call the Student Development Center at 770-423-6443(V) or 770-423-6480(TTY) or e-mail cpope@kennesaw.edu indicating some possible dates and times that you could meet.