disability in the regular educational environment—meaning the setting where students withoutdisabilities participate in academic, nonacademic, and extracurricular services and activities—unless the Section 504 team reaches an individualized determination that the student’s needscannot be met satisfactorily in that environment even with supplementary aids and services.71Supplementary aids and services could include, among other examples, preferential seating,counseling services, or the implementation of a BIP. In most cases, if the Section 504 plan hasbeen implemented as designed but still does not adequately address the disability-basedbehavior, the Section 504 team will be able to identify additional or different services to enablea student with a disability who is in the regular education environment to remain in that setting.

Section 504 requires that a school district educate a student with a disability in an academicsetting alongside students without disabilities to the maximum extent appropriate for the needsof the student with a disability.69 The same is true for the provision of nonacademic services andparticipation in extracurricular activities.70 Thus, a school district must place a student with a

Any decisions about a student’s educational environment must always be individualized. Forexample, a school district would violate Section 504 if it had a one-size-fits-all policy that requiredstudents with a particular disability to attend a separate class, program, or school regardless ofeducational needs. Similarly, it would violate Section 504 to respond to a student’s disability-based behavior by shortening the length of the student’s school day, thus reducing the minutesor hours the student is in the educational environment, without reconvening the Section 504team to determine if additional or different services are needed, or if an additional evaluation isnecessary. Any decision by the Section 504 team to reduce the amount of time a student is inschool or to place the student in a separate setting must be based on an individualizeddetermination about the student’s needs, using information from a variety of sources that isdocumented and carefully considered, and must be informed by an evaluation whenever theproposed changes would constitute a significant change in placement.72

In determining thestudent’s individualized placement, and reconvening the Section 504 team as needed, schoolsmust place them along with students without disabilities to the maximum extent appropriate tomeet the needs of the student with a disability.74 The determination of which educational settingamong an array of settings is appropriate must be tailored to the student’s individual needs. TheSection 504 team also must ensure that the school has in place the individualized services thestudent needs to support a return to a less restrictive setting.75 Note that some Section 504-onlystudents may need an evaluation under the IDEA if their school has reason to believe the studentrequires special education.76