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Section 504 is a federal civil rights law, contained in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. It provides that "no otherwise qualified individual with a disability in the United States .... shall, solely by reason of his disability, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under, any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance..." Public schools receive some financial assistance, so they are subject to the law. (However, there is no federal funding to support the school's Section 504 efforts.)
Under Section 504, a student is a "qualified individual with a disability" if (s)he has a physical or mental impairment, which substantially limits a major life activity. A student would also receive the protections of Section 504 under certain circumstances where the school district treats the student as if the student had a disability, and denied or limited the student's access to its programs for that reason.
The phrase "physical or mental impairment" refers to a wide variety of mental, psychological and physiological disorders or conditions. It is not the diagnosis or the name of such condition that controls, but whether it has a substantially limiting effect on a major life activity for the individual. The term "major life activity" is also very broad, and includes functions such as caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, thinking, and working.
(Chittenden South Supervisory Union "Information About Section 504")
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