My 12yo son is 2E with dyslexia and dysgraphia, which was diagnosed at age 7. He received a 504 in 2nd grade, but since the school wouldn't provide much besides accommodations, we hired a private tutor for 3 years, who was really wonderful. He's in 7th grade now and doing amazingly well. His reading is at above 12th-grade level, and he's getting a B+ in writing. His spelling is still atrocious, but his actual writing is fine. He doesn't use any of the accommodations in his 504 except that he reads on his kindle (with larger text) and sometimes just listens to the books rather than reads them. His 504 gives him extra time on tests and assignments, the ability to keyboard (all the students do this now), stipulates that teachers can't mark down for spelling unless it's for a spelling test, and it allows him to use an ereader when necessary.
He's getting all As except for that B+ in writing. Based on this, I don't see the need to continue with the 504, but I'm wondering if there is some long-term issue I'm not considering?
The long-term issues to consider are high school, high stakes testing in high school, and college. You need to consider will your ds need accommodations for things such as:
High School: Do you know now that all high school teachers allow keyboarding for all students? My dysgraphic ds is in high school; he has some classes where the assignment instructions for essays specifically state "handwriting only", and he also has had some weird things come up such as an assignment to turn in handwritten flash cards. Is your ds using his extended time accommodation for tests? While he might not now, the rigor and time limits on tests might change as he reaches high school. The amount of time he needs to take to check math problems might change (therefore impacting test time). Is the state testing your ds has taken so far timed or untimed? If it's been untimed, look at his results for timed vs untimed testing on anything you have a comparison on - timing is often an issue for dysgraphic and dyslexic students, and it becomes more pervasive in testing as you go through high school, as well as becoming critically important when you take high stakes testing (SAT and ACT). It's possible the extended time for assignments might be more critical for your ds in high school than middle school with additional teachers and more rigorous coursework, or if he decides to participate in extra-curricular activities such as a sport or club that meets on weeknights.
High Stakes Testing: Same thing mentioned above + something - it isn't easy to get accommodations for extended time or use of a word processor for the SAT and ACT. You're expected to be able to provide a history of use of accommodations as well as "recent" testing showing the current impact on a student's functioning. Whether or not you think your ds will need the accommodations for the SAT and ACT, the one thing you can assure yourself of is that if he does, having the history of the same accommodations under a 504 plan will make it easier to prove he needs them when it's time to advocate for them.
I think it's also just a good idea in general for you and your ds to have a good understanding of which accommodations he is using and how his work without those accommodations compares to other students, and having the 504 plan in place, having the discussions with the team when the plan is reviewed each year, etc, helps a high school age student understand the impact of his/her challenges. For example, both my dysgraphic ds and my dyslexic dd take considerably more time to do their homework than their peers even *with* other accommodations such as ereaders for my dyslexic ds and typing for my dysgraphic ds. They've both made amazing progress with respect to their individual challenges thanks to help at school as well as private tutoring/remediation, but they are both still impacted. I'd want to be extra extra sure before dropping a 504 plan that the impact didn't still exist.
One other thought - kinda irrelevant but maybe worth thinking about - spelling is another huge issue for both my 2e kids, and they both use electronic spell-checkers and word prediction software, except on standardized testing. My ds' 504 plan has an accommodation to not get graded off for spelling but he also needs to still try to get his words spelled correctly (using whatever method works for him) so that other people who don't know him at some point in the future won't see his writing and judge him by his spelling. If your ds isn't using word prediction or an electronic spell-check of some type, you might want to start implementing it. Since he uses these accommodations, my ds' final drafts of written assignments rarely contain spelling errors - yet he still makes tons of errors on short-answer type assignments etc at school or on timed writing assignments when has to focus all of his time on the writing and doesn't have enough time to check spelling. Not all miss-spelled words are caught by his spell-checker.
I'd also think through, why is your ds getting a B+ in writing when he's getting As in everything else. Is there something he still needs help with, or is it an issue with appropriate accommodations?
Probably more thoughts than you need! To summarize: keep the 504 plan.
jmo,
polarbear
