Informal and Formal Dispute Resolutions and Grievance Procedure
Informal Complaint Resolution
A student who has a complaint regarding determination of disability status, service provision and/or related issues should notify an AARS professional staff member (Assistant Dean and Director and/or Assistant Director for Accommodations) as soon as possible to resolve the issue. The AARS professional staff member will respond within five (5) working days.
These complaints can include, but are not limited to, denial of accommodation, delay and/or denial of services or auxiliary equipment, unequal treatment and/or discrimination, program and architectural inaccessibility. The AARS professional staff member will inform the student in writing (via email) of the outcome of the interaction no later than 10 working days after the meeting.
Formal Complaint Resolution
If an informal resolution is not reached, the student may submit a formal complaint within five (5) days of the event/action (or the last date of a related series of events/actions), notwithstanding any action taken by the appropriate administrator.
Formal complaints must meet one of two criteria:
- Procedural error occurred that may have impacted the decision, or
- New evidence exists that was not reasonably available to present at the time of the original decision or informal complaint process.
A student wishing to file a formal complaint must complete the Accommodation Reconsideration Form. The Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs at the Dean of Students office will receive this form and will notify the student and the Accommodations and Academic Resource Services of their decision within five (5) working days. If the Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs approves the accommodation, the AARS office will follow up with the student to facilitate the implementation of the approved accommodations. If the Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs denies the accommodation, and the student believes that they were wrongly denied, the student may begin a formal grievance procedure.
Grievance
If the student has depleted all of the above appeals and believes that they have been unjustly denied, they may start a formal grievance procedure regarding the University’s compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
The following link will direct you to Scripps’ Grievance Procedures:
Special Note For Housing Accommodations: If a housing accommodation is approved after any of the steps of the appeal, Residential Life will be notified and the student will be placed on a waiting list until Residential Life has available space for the approved accommodation – this can take anywhere from a couple days to a couple months.
*Waiting lists are prioritized based on severity of need rather than the chronological order of applications. The AARS housing committee has the right to determine the severity of a student’s need based off of their documentation/conditions.*