Rights of mentally ill students?

Question

Mental illnesses are covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act. But that is with employers and employees. I was wondering do people that suffer from mental illness have any legal rights regarding to education? I mean in the high school and college sense. Because students with these illnesses often have bad attendance records which leads to disciplinary actions and sometimes legal, truancy, trouble.

Answer 1

They are protected. I had to contact the State Board of Education to get all the rules (in writing) to back this up at the local level. This concerned a child that was denied Sign Language classes because she could hear, but not talk. She got the classes. Many rights are contained in the books that even the local level administrators are not aware of.

Answer 2

Students with a diagnosis of a mental condition, have the same rights as those with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, etc.

Answer 3

They had many programs to try and blend these students in with regular classes and in a very few cases it worked. But for the most part it created total havoc and brought the whole class down due to teachers having to give too much attention to the child with special needs.

Answer 4

They are protected. They have to inform the teacher about their condition and provide the documented proof. This is the way it is in my college, at least.