U.S. Department of Education Announces Plan to Amend Section 504 Implementation Regulations

The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced a call for public comment to improve and amend the current regulations implementation Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, a federal civil rights law that contains protections for people with disabilities. Section 504 prohibits schools that receive public funds from discrimination against students with disabilities. Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine Lhamon underscored the importance of the call for comments, noting that “the Department’s Section 504 regulations have remained, with a few exceptions, unaltered” since they were first published forty-five years ago. While there is currently no deadline for providing comments on Section 504, OCR indicated it will hold listening sessions over the next few months and review public comments before embarking on a process of crafting updated guidance. 

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