Does the Section 504 lawsuit put my child’s 504 plan at risk?

A lawsuit filed by a group of states threatens Section 504. Learn what that could mean for students with disabilities and their 504 plans.

A lawsuit filed by a group of 17 states, Texas v. Becerra, calls for the end of the civil rights law that covers 504 plans. That law is Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. 

Section 504 protects students with disabilities from discrimination. It also requires schools to give them equal access to learning and school buildings.

The suit asks the court to declare Section 504 unconstitutional. Right now, there’s no way to know what the outcome of the case will be, or how it might affect supports for individual students. 

504 plans give students with disabilities the accommodations, tools, and services they need to be able to access the same education as their peers. The lawsuit has led many parents to wonder what might happen to their child’s education if the law goes away.

Here are some answers to help you keep up with the news.

What are 504 plans, and how do they work?

A 504 plan is an individual program of school supports for students with disabilities. Each plan is tailored to meet a student’s specific needs. It includes all of the accommodations, assistive technology and tools, and services the school must provide to that student. The purpose is to remove barriers to learning and provide access to the school environment as a whole.

While 504s are formal programs, there’s no standard template for them. Some schools don’t actually put them into writing.

504 plans are different from IEP plans. They’re not part of special education. They provide supports, not specialized instruction. But both of these programs are designed to give students a free appropriate public education (FAPE) so they can learn alongside their peers. 

What is Section 504?

Section 504 is part of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the country’s first civil rights law for people with disabilities. It protects people with disabilities from discrimination in places that get federal funding. This includes in schools.

President Nixon signed the Act into law in 1973. But it wasn’t implemented for four years. The law lacked regulations and enforcement timelines until 1977, when people with disabilities famously protested, including a sit-in that lasted nearly a month.

What is the lawsuit about?

In September, Texas filed a lawsuit against the government after the Biden administration added gender dysphoria as a protected disability under Section 504. Sixteen other states joined the suit.

Much of the lawsuit focuses on that issue. But the lawsuit doesn’t ask to have the addition of gender dysphoria removed. It asks the court to declare Section 504 unconstitutional and to block the government from enforcing it.

These are the other states that filed the suit along with Texas:

• Alaska

• Alabama

• Arkansas

• Florida

• Georgia

• Indiana

• Iowa

• Kansas

• Louisiana

• Missouri

• Montana

• Nebraska

• South Carolina

• South Dakota

• Utah

• West Virginia

What is happening with the lawsuit?

The states filed a status report with the court on February 19. It says that the states never asked and don’t plan to ask the court to declare Section 504 unconstitutional as a whole or to block the enforcement of the law as a whole. But the report doesn’t change the lawsuit. The lawsuit’s “Demand for Relief” directs the court to “Declare Section 504, 29 U.S.C. § 794, unconstitutional.”   

For now, the case is paused. The states have until April 21, 2025, to file their next status report with the court.

What will happen to my child’s 504 plan if Section 504 is blocked?

Nobody knows how individual programs might be affected. As the lawsuit reads, the states want the court to declare Section 504 unconstitutional. If that happens, the law behind 504 plans would be gone. So would the protections that come from it.

That doesn’t mean your child’s supports will disappear, though. (Or that your child won’t have any protections.) Schools develop individual programs for support, and how they do it already varies.

Is this lawsuit part of what’s happening to the U.S. Department of Education?

No, they’re separate situations involving different laws and types of programs. But both could directly affect how the federal government supports and protects students with disabilities.

President Trump has said he’d like to close the department. (He’d need an act from Congress to do that.) He was expected to issue an executive order, but that hasn’t happened yet. 

This story is developing. We’ll update it as new details emerge.