Flex Plan

FLEX accommodations facilitate access to educational content for students with chronic, unpredictable disabilities, as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). 

Examples of chronic, unpredictable disabilities include, but are not limited to, chronic pain disorders, autoimmune disorders, and some mental health conditions.  

DAC Flex Plan recommendations have been formed through collaboration with campus stakeholders, professional organizations, and peer exemplars.  These guidelines are not meant to be mandates and may not work for every student or class.  

Students should notify faculty when missing class for disability-related reasons: DAC recommends that students notify instructors of absence via email in advance of the absence (if possible) or within 48 hours. 

How many days may the student miss (beyond those stated in the syllabus): DAC recommends that, if attendance is graded via roll call or participation, faculty facilitate 50% more absences than allowed in the syllabus attendance policy. If 0, 1, 3, etc. absences are allowed, we advise to round to the nearest whole number.  

in the context of your class, how much additional time is reasonable for late assignments? DAC recommends that students submit late assignments within 72 hours of the initial deadline. 

If a student misses an exam for disability-related reasons, the DAC recommends that students schedule a makeup exam within 5 days of missing an assessment. If the DAC is to proctor the makeup exam, students must schedule a DAC-proctored makeup exam 2 business days in advance.  

 

The Flex Plan is intended to create a reasonable modification, where appropriate, to the classroom attendance and assignment deadlines policies of each course but is not intended to serve as an attendance or assignment submission waiver. Rather, the Flex Plan allows for flexibility in attendance, assignment due dates, and exam scheduling. 

The Flex Plan insulates students and faculty from the risks of negotiating the parameters of an approved accommodation or the inadvertent denial of an accommodation without due process.

Using the FLEX plan contract, faculty have a chance to provide the DAC with feedback on how classroom accommodations interact with course learning objectives. 

The FLEX plan also creates a clear contract with accommodated students to avoid misunderstandings around accommodated absences and due dates.  The Flex plan places the DAC as a support for faculty and students navigating classroom accommodation implementation. 

Course attendance policies are set by faculty and depend on University policy, course learning objectives, departmental policy, scheduled experiential activities (i.e., labs), and accrediting body standards. Faculty are not required to modify essential course requirements in order to implement flex accommodations.

Faculty have the right to establish attendance and late work policies in accordance with Western Washington University policy (see faculty handbook for attendance policies). All students are expected to attend class and meet deadlines for assignments and tests.

However, students with chronic or episodic disability-related symptoms face barriers outside of their control, which impact their ability to attend class and complete tests or assignments at the scheduled time. The Flex Plan addresses attendance and assignment deadline-related barriers for students who are impacted by chronic, episodic disability-related symptoms.

The instructor’s class policy on late work (e.g., 10 points off a grade for each day late) will remain applicable even to students with Flex Plan accommodation if they fail to meet the agreed upon disability-related extension, or if they miss deadlines for other non-disability related reasons.

As a reminder, accommodations are not retroactive; instructors are not obligated to adjust previous penalties for late work if accommodation letter is provided after-the-fact.

If faculty believe that implementing Flex plan accommodations will constitute a fundamental alteration of course learning objectives, they should contact the DAC's Director, Dr. Josef Mogharreban at mogharj@wwu.edu or via phone at 360-650-3083.

Denial of approved disability-related accommodations is an institutional decision made by an ad-hoc committee assembled by the DAC. 

When the DAC determines that a student qualifies for a disability-related Flex plan, the DAC recommendations are implemented initially. If the professor is concerned about how the DAC recommendations will impact learning objectives, faculty should respond to the email that was sent by the student's Access Manager so that the faculty, student, and DAC can coordinate the parameters of the accommodation.  

The Flex plan is not intended to provide unlimited flexibility and should only be applied in the event of a disability-related acute episode or other disability-related event. It is never appropriate to ask for or otherwise require a medical note from a student.

1. What does the class description and syllabus say about assignment deadlines or late work?
2. How is the final class grade calculated? To what extent are assignments factored into the final grade? Are there any alternative grading schemes for assignments (i.e. one assignment grade may be dropped, etc.)?
3. Are assignment deadline policies consistently applied? (i.e.., Have any exceptions made to the policy for non-disabled students, such as for athletic travel or religious observances? If so, then these exceptions must also be granted to students with disabilities.)
4. What is the purpose of the assignment? Is it necessary to have it completed before an exam? Before a discussion?
5. Is the material being learned in the class sequentially? Does each week’s material build on the material learned in the previous week(s)? (This may shorten the window of time in which an extension can reasonably be granted.)
6. Are assignments used as class content when they are due? Are students required to actively participate in class discussions/activities based off of the assignment? (e.g. problem sets reviewed as the first lecture on that content)
7. Are answer sets released that would impact a student’s ability to request an extension? If so, how important is the timeliness of providing the answer sets to student learning and course sequencing?
8. Are there other lab or class sections the student could attend to catch up on missed material?
9. Does the assignment involve teamwork? Would failure to complete the assignment on time compromise the educational experience of other students in the class?
10. Is it possible for students to “work ahead” in this class?