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College student Jalen Woodard studied hard, got extra help from professors and tutors, and knew his course material, but still found himself getting low test grades. He knew that accommodations like extra time would support his challenges, but his college required documentation of his disability that he did not have. “Trying to get academic accommodations in college was completely overwhelming. I was staring down thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs and months on a waitlist for a professional evaluation just to get extra exam time,” Woodard said, reflecting back on his college experience. He outlined his “mentally exhausting,” yearlong process of getting diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and accessing accommodations in a 2022 . “That experience made me realize how administrative red tape can push students with disabilities, especially those coming from lower-income backgrounds, out of higher education before they even get a real chance to succeed.” 

This week, the Senate committee tasked with overseeing education (the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee) out of committee, with a unanimous 22-0 vote, a bill that aims to help students with disabilities access accommodations more smoothly and quickly in college so that they can thrive in higher education from day one. The bipartisan was originally introduced in 2016 and reintroduced in January 2026 and amends the Higher Education Act with the aim of better supporting students with disabilities and their families in selecting colleges and succeeding once there.

Today, more than identifies as having disabilities. Even if they had an individualized education program (IEP) or Section 504 plan in high school, many college students have to spend time, money, and energy reestablishing their disabilities through new evaluations and documentation. Waitlists for private evaluations during college are consequently months long, prolonging students’ academic stress while they wait. A recent national of postsecondary students with learning disabilities found that only 57 percent of students could use their existing IEP, Section 504 plan, or evaluations to access accommodations, and nearly a third had to complete a new, full evaluation (32 percent), nearly half of whom had to pay out-of-pocket (44 percent). Eight percent of students reported that their schools required a new full evaluation but that they were not able to obtain one. Not only does this put extra pressure on the already busy transition to college, but it also makes access to accommodations inequitable for students who cannot afford the cost of evaluations. (See list below for examples of accommodations.)

The RISE Act would require universities to accept high school documentation as proof of disability, so that a student who used an IEP, Section 504 plan, or private school plan in high school would not be required to gain new documentation. The Act would also require institutions of higher education to report data on students with disabilities, including data on how many students with disabilities are registered with their campus disability services office, how many receive accommodations, and how many graduate. Students and families could use this data to make more informed choices when selecting universities.

The Act would also fund the National Center for Information and Technical Support for Postsecondary Students with Disabilities to provide technical assistance to universities to strengthen their disability policies and initiatives. For instance, better university policies could make it easier for students to understand which accommodations are available. As it stands, students with disabilities often get limited or nebulous information about available options. One student had to in order to see a list of accommodations from their university.

The RISE Act could help millions of college students succeed beyond the one in five accounted for in national data. It is likely that undergraduates actually have disabilities than the data reflects, since only about one-third of college students with disabilities reported their disabilities to their colleges as of 2016, according to the National Center for Education Statistics’ latest data. The percentage of college students with disabilities has in the past two decades, driven in large part by more students reporting behavioral and emotional conditions like anxiety, depression, and ADHD. This surge could the fact that mental health challenges carry less stigma than they did in previous decades, and that the increase in campus mental health supports has made higher education more accessible to students with these conditions. Through the RISE Act, policymakers can ensure a smoother transition to higher education for millions of students with disabilities.