My 504 Voice — say what school is like, in your own words

Say what school is like, in your own words

This is a place to write down what school is actually like for you, see the full range of accommodations other students get, read what the law says in plain language, and make a dated document you can print or send.

Everything you type stays on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere. There is no account and no sign-in, and it keeps working with no internet.

Free, no account
Nothing leaves this device
Works offline
Everything comes out dated
Every rule cites its source

Your part, in order

Things worth knowing

Grown-up tools

You do not need a diagnosis to use any of this

Nothing here is locked behind a label. Every accommodation in this tool is visible to everyone, and you can ask for anything on the list. Picking what is hard for you, or picking a condition, only changes what gets shown first. It never takes anything away.

Why the date matters

Keep a copy of every version you send, with the date on it. A document written before a disagreement starts is worth far more later than anything written afterward. This tool puts the date on the page for that reason, and keeps a dated log of everything else.

New here? Start small

You do not have to do the screens in order, and you do not have to finish. Nothing is submitted anywhere, so a half-filled page is not a mistake. If you only do one thing today, do What is hard for me and stop.

About me

Only fill in what you want to. You can leave anything blank.

My name My grade School year The most important thing I want my team to know

Your words stay your words. Nothing you type here gets reworded or cleaned up. That is on purpose. A document in a student's own words is harder for anyone to dismiss as a parent's version of events.

What is hard for me

Check anything that is hard, in any amount. This is not a test and nothing here is a diagnosis. It only decides what gets shown first on the accommodations screen, and you can always see everything.

Or start from a condition

Optional shortcut. Picking a condition checks the areas that commonly go with it, so you have somewhere to start. You can uncheck anything, add anything, and nothing here goes into your document unless you write it yourself.

Search conditions

My health

My conditions

List the conditions you have, one at a time, in whatever words you use for them. You do not need a doctor's wording, and you can skip this entirely.

Getting to school and staying there

How does your health affect getting to school or staying all day? About how often does it keep you home, or make you late? What do you need during the school day for your health?

Attendance is often treated as a behavior problem when it is a health problem. Writing down the reason, in your words, on a dated page, is how that gets untangled later. See Know your rights for what the law says about disability-related absences.

School in my words

What makes school harder

Where at school is hardest? Sounds, lights, smells, textures, or crowds that are hard Anything about people, talking, or being understood that is hard What happens in your body or feelings when it gets to be too much Anything about the work itself that is hard Anything about getting around the building, or getting to school

What makes school easier

What already helps, or has helped before? Which parts of the day go well?

What I am asking for

This is the full list. Check anything you want, from any section, whether or not it matches what you picked earlier. Asking for something does not mean you have to use it every day.

Add my own

If it is not on the list, that does not mean you cannot ask for it. Write it here.

My list so far (0)

Each one is saved with the date you added it.

My strengths

This section stays in the document on purpose. A list of only problems is not a fair picture of you, and it is not what anyone should be reading.

What I am good at What I like, or what I want to do more of Something I am proud of

What would help most

If you could change only two or three things, what would they be?

My document

This builds a dated document from everything you have written. Check it, then print it or copy it into an email.

Who is this for? (optional)

To make a PDF, choose Print and then pick "Save as PDF" as the printer.

Press "Build my document" to see it here.

Know your rights

This is information, not legal advice. Each entry says where the rule comes from so you can go read the source yourself. Laws change, states differ, and your situation may not be typical. For a real dispute, talk to a special education advocate, an education attorney, or your state's protection and advocacy organization, which is free.

If something goes wrong

Find the situation closest to yours. Each one lists what you can do, roughly in the order most families try it, and which rule backs it up.

Almost everything here works better in writing, and email counts as writing. Timelines usually start on the date the school receives a written request, so a dated email is worth more than a hallway conversation.

What the words mean

School meetings are full of initials. None of them are hard once somebody says them plainly. Nothing on this screen is a rule you have to follow — it is just the vocabulary, so nobody can use a word to end a conversation.

You are allowed to stop a meeting and ask what a word means. "I don't know that term, can you explain it?" is a complete sentence, and asking for it in writing afterwards is normal.

Search the words

The meeting itself

What usually happens, what you are allowed to do, and a place to write down what you want to say. Anything you write here goes into your document.

Who is normally in the room

Someone from the campus who can commit the school to things — often an assistant principal or the 504 coordinator.
At least one of your teachers.
Someone who can explain any testing that was done.
A parent or guardian. For an IEP meeting in Texas this is the ARD committee, and a parent is a full member of it.
You. A student can attend their own meeting. It is required once transition planning starts, and welcome long before that.

Things you are allowed to do, that people often do not realise

Bring someone. A friend, a relative, an advocate. You do not have to explain who they are or come alone.
Ask for the draft in advance. If the school has already written something down, you can ask to read it before the meeting rather than in it.
Say "I need to think about it." You do not have to agree to anything in the room, and you do not have to sign that day.
Ask for it in writing. Anything agreed out loud should end up in the plan. If it is not written down, it did not happen.
Ask for prior written notice. If the school refuses something, under IDEA you can ask for the refusal and the reasons in writing. See Know your rights.
Ask to reconvene. If the meeting runs out of time, or you get new information, you can ask for another one.
Take notes. Always. Recording rules vary by state and district, so ask first — but nobody can stop you writing things down.

After the meeting, the same day if you can

Send one short email to whoever ran the meeting saying what you understood was agreed. You do not need it to be perfect. A dated summary that nobody corrected is worth a great deal later.

What I want out of this meeting

Meeting date, if you know it The one thing I most want to come out of this meeting What I want to say first, in my own words Questions I want to ask What is hard about the meeting itself

The meeting is part of school, so the way the meeting runs can be accommodated as well: a shorter meeting, breaks, questions sent ahead in writing, or answering in writing instead of out loud. Those are on the accommodations list too.

The current plan

This section is for a parent or guardian. Type or paste what the current 504 plan or IEP actually says under accommodations, one per line. Nothing here is sent anywhere.

Date of the current plan Paste the accommodations section, one per line

What the plan contains (0)

Type it as written, including wording you disagree with. The comparison is more useful when the plan side is exact.

Asked for vs. in the plan

Every request is checked against the plan. The tool suggests a match; you confirm it. Nothing goes into the document as granted or not granted until a person has confirmed it.

The written record

A dated log of who said what, and when. This is the single most useful thing a family can keep, and it takes about a minute per entry. Nothing here is sent anywhere.

Write the entry the same day if you can. A contemporaneous note — one made at the time, not reconstructed later — carries much more weight than a memory, and it is the thing an advocate or attorney will ask for first.

Add an entry

Date Who (name and role) How What was said What was promised, and by when

The record so far (0)

Newest first. Entries appear in your document in date order.

What to log

Every request you make, and the date you made it.
Every answer, including "we'll get back to you" and the date it was said.
Anything promised out loud that has not turned up in writing.
Every time an accommodation in the plan did not happen, with the date.
Every call to come and collect your child early, and the reason given.
Every meeting, who was there, and what was decided.

Keep it factual. Write what was said and done, not what you concluded from it. A log that reads like a record is useful to everyone; a log that reads like an argument is useful to nobody.

My district and campus

Filling this in once makes the letter templates fill themselves in, and keeps the right addresses in one place. It is stored on this device only.

District staff, titles, emails, and phone numbers change constantly, and a request sent to the wrong address is a request that never legally arrived. Anything loaded below carries the date it was collected. Before you send something that has to arrive by a deadline, check it against the district's current website or a recent letter from them.

District Campus Campus 504 coordinator, name and email District 504 coordinator or director, name and email Special education office, name, email, phone Who to send records requests to Anything else worth remembering about how it works here

How it usually runs in a Texas district

The IEP team is called the ARD committee. The 504 team is usually a separate campus committee.
Evaluation requests are normally sent to the campus coordinator, with a copy to the district office. Copying the district office is what puts the district as a whole on notice.
The full evaluation is the FIE, the full individual and initial evaluation, and Texas counts its deadline in school days from written consent.
Transition planning starts at fourteen in Texas, earlier than the federal age of sixteen.
If the committee cannot agree, a parent can ask for a recess of up to ten school days rather than signing at the table.

See Know your rights for the Texas rules with their citations, and verify current text before relying on any of them.

Letters and templates

Copy these into an email and fill in the brackets. Keep every one you send, with the date.

Communication log

Keep one of these for every phone call and meeting. A contemporaneous note is worth a great deal later.

Date: ____   Time: ____   Who I spoke with: ____   Their role: ____
How (phone, in person, email): ____
What I asked for: ____
What they said: ____
What was agreed, and who does it: ____
Follow up needed by: ____
Did I confirm this in writing? ____

Settings

Every choice here is remembered on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere, and you can change any of it as often as you like.

How this looks

Theme Reading font

Hyperlegible is a typeface drawn to keep similar letters — b and d, I and l, 0 and O — from being mistaken for each other. It is the default here.

Text size Line spacing

If your device is already set to reduce motion, this page follows it whether or not this button is on.

Privacy

This page makes no network requests at all. There is no analytics, no tracking, no cookies, no account, and no fonts or scripts loaded from anywhere else. Everything you type is stored in this browser only.

Two things worth knowing: clearing your browser data will erase it, so export a backup if it matters — and if this is a school-issued device, someone at the school may be able to read what is stored on it. Use a family device if that matters to you.

Backup

The export is a single file containing everything you have written. Keep it somewhere you can find it, and import it to move to another device.

Erase

This removes everything from this device and cannot be undone. Export a backup first if you want to keep it.

About this tool

My 504 Voice is free and open source, and it is informational, not legal advice. Every legal entry carries its citation so you can go and read the source yourself. The rights content covers federal law everywhere in the US, plus Texas-specific entries which are labelled as Texas.