Law Students

Accommodations at the College of Law

  • All law students seeking accommodations will register with the CDR using the ‘Registration Form’.
    • This registration form includes a self-assessment that will help us explore student learning experiences and can take up to 30 minutes to complete.
  • Relevant documentation that indicates a history of a disability should be uploaded at the time of registration.
    • Please note, students should not wait to register with CDR due to not having proper documentation. The senior Access Coordinator will discuss any specific third-party documentation we may need during the “Welcome Meetings” and the steps necessary to obtain this information. Our first priority is meeting students, not reviewing paperwork.
    • For questions regarding documentation, please review our documentation guidelines
  • After completing the registration form students will receive an email with instructions for scheduling a “Welcome Meeting” with the Senior Access Coordinator.
  • At the “Welcome Meeting” with the Senior Access Coordinator, and through an interactive process an appropriate access plan will be developed that includes a formal letter of accommodation.
  • This letter will be maintained in their electronic files within the disability resource portal in MySlice and will be shared with the Office of Students Affairs at the COL when needed. Students can access their letter of accommodation at any time in the portal.

Anonymity

Due to the anonymity of grading, many law schools across the country, including Syracuse COL, do not disclose a student’s disability to the faculty. There are occasions when disclosure to the faculty is required in order to implement classroom and course-related accommodations.

Law School Accommodations

Testing and exam accommodations are never shared with faculty. In order to ensure anonymous grading, most if not all, midterms and finals are administered independently from the faculty.

  • Testing and Exam Accommodations
    • All midterm and final exams are scheduled by the Access Coordinator in connection with the COL registrar’s office. Exams are often scheduled at times that overlap when the course exams are administered but due to space and proctoring schedules the exam times may vary from the published exam schedule. The finalized exam schedule will be emailed to the students shortly before the scheduled exam period.
    • For in-class assessments such as pop quizzes, students should contact the Senior Access Coordinator as soon as possible to make arrangements for accommodations that will preserve anonymity.
  • Initiate Classroom Accommodations
    • Students should review the class syllabus to determine if any of their accommodations conflict with stated classroom policies.
    • Students should email the Senior Access Coordinator and clearly state which accommodations are necessary to access the course curriculum in each class.
    • Based on the interactive process, the Senior Access Coordinator will contact the specific faculty member(s) to implement the agreed upon accommodations.

Professional Exam Accommodations

Accommodations for the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE) or state bar exams will need to follow the current procedures established by these testing organizations.

The standards for acceptable qualifying documentation put forth by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) and the state Board of Bar Examiners (BBE) may be different than the standards of other testing organizations (SAT, LSAT or GRE) as well as the Syracuse College of Law. Therefore, there is no guarantee that previously approved accommodations at this institution will be approved for the bar exam. Additionally, updated and more thorough third-party documentation of a student’s disability may be required. It is critical that students start the process of reviewing these guidelines and applying for disability accommodations for these exams well before they plan to sit for the exams.

More information regarding testing accommodations for the MPRE and individual state bar exams can be found using the descriptive hyperlinks below. If students are interested in taking the bar in a different state and cannot find the current accommodation request information, they should contact the COL Senior Access Coordinator.

Other Disability related Organizations at the College of Law and Syracuse University:

College of Law:

Syracuse University