FAACT's Roundtable

Ep. 232: Celebrate Section 504

• Amelia Smith • Season 5 • Episode 232

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Section 504 has opened doors for millions of students with disabilities, including those managing food allergies. Today, we are discussing an exciting new campaign focused on Celebrating Section 504 and how you can help raise awareness for Food Allergy Awareness Month and Week! We’re sitting with FAACT’s General Counsel and Vice President of Civil Rights Advocacy, Amelia Smith, JD. We discuss how and why Section 504 has impacted lives as we celebrate this significant aspect of our food allergy community.

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Sponsored by: Genentech

Thanks for listening! FAACT invites you to discover more exciting food allergy resources at FoodAllergyAwareness.org!

Caroline: Welcome to FAACT's Roundtable, a podcast dedicated to navigating life with food allergies across the lifespan. Presented in a welcoming format with interviews and open discussions, each episode will explore a specific topic, leaving you with the FAACTS to know or use.

Information presented via this podcast is educational and not intended to provide individual medical advice. Please consult with your personal board certified allergist or healthcare providers for advice specific to your situation.

Hi everyone, I'm Caroline Moassessi and I am your host for the FAACT Roundtable podcast. I am a food allergy parent and advocate and the founder of the Grateful Foodie Blog.

And I am FAACT's roundtable podcast. Also, please note that today's guest was not paid by or sponsored by Genentech to participate in this specific podcast.

We at FAACT are beyond excited to celebrate Food Allergy Awareness Month and want to make sure you get a chance to join in the fun and excitement too. Please head over to foodallergyawareness.org for clever ideas to celebrate and raise awareness.

One extra special Food Allergy Awareness Month action is FAACT's Celebrate Section 504 campaign. It's easy, fun and makes a difference in a new, fresh way that will have a lasting impact.

Links to both initiatives can be found in the podcast notes. Happy Food Allergy Awareness Month. Section 504 has opened doors for millions of students with disabilities, including those managing food allergies.

Today we're discussing an exciting new campaign focused on celebrating Section 504 and how you can uplift Food Allergy Awareness Week and Month. We're sitting with FAACTS General Counsel Amelia Smith where we'll talk about how and why Section 504 has changed lives as we celebrate this important element of our food allergy world.

Amelia, welcome back to FAACT's Roundtable Podcast. We're absolutely excited and thrilled to have you today because every time you're with us, we learn something new. You leave us inspired and you leave us excited with new ways to help our children and families or people we love.

So welcome. I'm so happy you're with us today.

Amelia: Thanks so much Caroline. I'm so happy to be back. I always enjoy our conversations.

Caroline: I agree.

So now let's just dive right into this exciting new campaign that's called Celebrate Section 504 by discussing what 504 is and then how it has impacted our food allergy community.

Amelia: Certainly. So section 504 when we say section 504, we are referring to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation act of 1973, which is effective federal law that prohibits discrimination against disabled individuals or individuals with disabilities in programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance and in federal programs.

So the most common use that we discuss Section 504n or application of 504 is in the K12 school setting in where Section 504 requires the schools provide students with disabilities a free and appropriate public education.

Caroline: Thank you. It's really good to start off with that basis. So we're all on the same page. So now let's get into the meat of the matter here. Why is it important to celebrate Section 504 and the OCR?

Amelia: So, Caroline, sure, as most of our listeners know now, there has been a lot of concern in not only the food allergy community, but in the disability community as a whole, as to the Future of Section 504.

There is a federal lawsuit filed in a district court in Texas that was originally styled Texas vs Beera, which is now Texas vs Kennedy, which I'm sure most everybody is familiar with now because of the.

The huge online uproar that we saw on social media when the case first was made well known through social media months after it was filed. And then of course, beyond that, we had first scalebacks and layoffs and firings.

And at the U.S. Department of Education, whose Office for Civil Rights is tasked, it's their responsibility to enforce Section 504. And of course, now we have an administration that's trying to dissolve the Department of Education entirely, knowing that other than managing and administrating the federal student loan program,

the Office for Civil Rights is the main responsibility of the US Department of Education. So dissolving that as a whole, the disability community and the food allergy community,

we're really concerned about our future because Section 504 has been instrumental for a lot of our students, most of our students, to be able to actively and equally participate in education and the programs that schools offer outside of the curriculum in General.

Without Section 504, our students wouldn't be safe in school and happily and safely learning, which, as we always discuss, is our ultimate goal of a 504 plan for our students.

So with all of the negativity that is going on in today's world, not just revolving around the 504 disputes, but in the political climate that we are in in general, people are yelling, people are screaming.

Everything is so volatile right now that that's not getting anything accomplished. Yelling and screaming only begets more yelling and screaming. People are drowning each other out. In an era and time when everybody is complaining and everybody is so negative really is important to one.

You'll hear behavioral health specialists say this to flip our perspective, but also to show people that we are trying to convince that section 504 is essential.

The benefits of section 504. Because a lot of times we talk about the problems we have with section 504. We can't get these accommodations. Schools won't make children wash their hands.

I mean, it goes across the board.

But ultimately, those problems that we have are minute compared to the number of students, not just those with food allergies, but across the disability community.

Section 504 has been instrumental in changing their lives and in changing the landscape for these students. And I think it's really important when we're looking at possibly losing something that we remember how important it has been and the good that it has done.

And the decision makers and those people in the positions of power that are the ones that really are standing at the floodgate, controlling this and protecting us from this flooding away.

I guess I don't know how to describe it, but it's this thought that these rights that we have had for over 50 years could be stripped from us. These are the people that need to understand these decision makers, the people in policymakers, the people in power.

They need to know that we do appreciate and are very thankful for Section 504 and celebrate the opportunity that it has created for our students that wouldn't have the opportunities they have otherwise.

Caroline: Brilliantly said. Absolutely. I mean, I just reflect back at my children who are 26 and 21 right now. And if it wasn't for Section 504, they never would have had the experiences they had gone to college, gone to graduate school, or anything like that.

I remember looking back to when my son was looking to enter kindergarten and being told that maybe he needs to go to Special Edition and he should not be in a regular classroom because of his food allergies.

And it was thankfully because of just this, he was able to have a full and amazing life. I mean, you are just singing music to my ears and to our community's ears.

So on that note, obviously many of us have relied upon Section 504, why our children were in school K to 12. But what are the lifelong impacts that you see of section 504?

I mean, I have my feelings and my experiences, but you as the expert, what do you see?

Amelia: Well, okay, so As I said, K12 is the most common application that we speak of. But it's not the only application for Section 504. Section 504's reach goes to every single program that receives federal funding or that is a federal program.

Individuals cannot be discriminated against on the basis of disability by any program that receives federal funds. So we do see.

I think our second most common application would be in the college setting because of course, we know that Section 504 does apply to colleges that receive federal funds and requires that the college not discriminate against students on the basis of disability.

That is different than it is in K12. Of course, there's a reasonableness standard that applies to colleges,

but it extends beyond colleges as well. And if you will look at the different federal agencies, such as the usda, the USDA has its own office for Civil Rights. Every federal agency should and does because they themselves are tasked with making sure that not only they follow Section 504,

but the entities that receive funding from their program or their, their administrative agency complies with Section 504. So Section 504, you will see things such as the special dietary needs of students with disabilities that is accommodated, you know, at the school level, but there also should be some accommodation at the college level.

But beyond that, other programs that receive USDA funding, whether it be preschools or food banks, any of these organizations are touched by Section 504, so long as they receive federal funds.

So it's a lifelong application. And we see it, you know, through HUD, through the Housing and Urban Development, all of these organizations have this requirement. And so it's very important not only to our students in K12 and our college students, but adults with food allergies, families with food allergies,

other disabilities, they really are dependent on, on this legislation. And if, I mean, we've had it for over 50 years now. It was 1973. And of course the application has changed as the legal definition of disability has changed.

But they are people who rely on these protections now, and to strip them away from us is unfathomable. But if we don't again, celebrate it,

they don't understand. The people in power who are not touched by these laws don't necessarily understand just how truly, monumentally life changing they are for individuals with disabilities. And so again, it's important that we celebrate that not just those of us that are K12 parents or K12 families.

This applies to every individual with disability across the lifespan.

Caroline: Amelia, that was just so powerful and I learned so much just in these last few minutes. From you of how it impacts all of us in that way. I had no idea that these different federal entities had their own ocr.

So see, I told you we always learn something new. So that was just phenomenal. So just riding this wave of power. Now, let's turn our attention to the actual campaign, the Celebrate 504 campaign.

So can you tell us more about the campaign itself and then how we can turn any fears or concerns into really impactful moments of hope and joy during Food Allergy Awareness Week and Food Allergy Awareness Month?

I mean, this is the perfect time for us to just celebrate and dig deep into all these wonderful things you're.

Amelia: Telling us,

certainly, Caroline. Well, of course, you know, first and foremost in here in the campaign write up that you'll find on the fact website, we encourage everyone to reach out to their decision makers, whether that be be at a local level.

It could be your school board, it could be your school administration,

anyone that is in charge of making these decisions on the small level, to the large level, you could reach out to your Federal Senators, your U.S. Senators, your representative in the House of Representatives, you can reach out to your state decision makers.

Ideally, we would have people reaching out to everyone across the board here because we know that they are the gatekeepers right now, because we know that the U.S. department of Education cannot be dissolved without congressional approval because Congress created the U.S.

Department of Education, not the Executive branch.

So it's very important to reach out to these decision makers and express how Section 504 has really changed your life or the life of a loved one or the life of someone you care about with food allergies or any disability.

But also, we want to expand our reach of the campaign by sharing our stories on social media because we know, yes, we have a very strong voice in the food allergy community as a community to a whole, we have made huge changes in activating the community and reaching out to people in power.

And the different campaigns that have been done across the years, even just by fact, we've made some monumental changes. We've had people retract ads and things of that nature that have been detrimental to our community.

But getting the larger community involved is going to further our message and help show that it's not just benefiting those individuals with food allergies, but other disabilities, especially a lot of invisible disabilities that we don't think of, like food allergies.

So it's important to post on social media and share the hashtags for the campaign to get this word out there and to make sure. That everyone who has been affected by section 504 knows that they're welcome and invited to participate in our campaign.

It's not our campaign. We may have started it, but it really was designed for the community as a whole. Because I think in today's climate,

not only is it important to finesse our message when everyone is screaming and really to try to put a different perspective on it to get that attention, but it's also important for us to remember as a whole that in a time when literally you have to redo an interview five times before it can be published,

because you never know what's going to happen then in the next day, the next minute, the next hour, it's really important to focus on what we do know and where we are today and how far we have come.

And so that is the aspect that we want to see on social media to help everyone, not only help us with the campaign and to reach out to those people in power, but also to remind people that we do have things today to be thankful for.

In a time when things can seem so scary, not knowing what's coming around the corner.

Caroline: Amelia, listening to you, I am just so excited, and I can't wait to sink my teeth and get into this campaign. And, listeners, I know you have to be equally as excited as I am, so I'm going to make sure in the show notes I have all the links, and Amelia's talking about the campaign and how to find the hashtags and how to get yourself involved in this,

because this is exciting. And, Emilia, you're right. You know, these days are sometimes kind of heavy, and we have so much good to be grateful for. But then, like you're saying, it's so important to make sure everyone realizes the good that's there, and let's just celebrate it.

So thank you so much for talking about the campaign and educating us. And I'm so sad to say, but we are at the end of our time together. So do you have any parting words that you would like to leave our listeners with?

Amelia: I do. Caroline, I know that today's talk has been very positive, and I know we mentioned that there are times that 504 may not be perfect.

We can acknowledge that it is so much better than what we would have without Section 504,

without saying it is absolutely perfect and that everything is going amazingly.

If you are not at a place where you feel like your story is one that you can celebrate,

I want to remind you that fact is here for you. We do offer one on one contact free to families to discuss issues involving accommodations for your students, whether in K12 or college employment accommodations.

We really are here because we do support you and we want to make sure that you are able to receive the benefit of these protections that had been in place to make sure that everyone can equally and happily and healthily participate alongside their non food allergic and non disabled peers.

Just know that we are here. We want to celebrate you, celebrate your successes and celebrate the success of 504 and if you're not at that point yet, we want to help you make it a success.

Caroline: Brilliant and excellent words to end our conversation by Amelia thank you for your time. I know you're just incredibly busy.

Amelia: Thank you Caroline for taking the time and always being so engaged and I really appreciate your help getting our message out there and spreading the great work of that.

Caroline: Before we say goodbye today, I just want to take one more moment to say thank you to Genentech for their kind sponsorship of FAACT's Roundtable podcast. Also, I want to note that today's guest was not paid by or sponsored by Genentech to participate in this specific podcast.

Thank you for listening to FAACT's Roundtable Podcast. Stay tuned for future episodes coming soon. Please subscribe, leave a review and listen to our podcast on Pandora, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio and Stitcher.

Have a great day and always be be kind to one another.