DRC Personal Care Attendant Policy

Responsibility of the College

It is the responsibility of the College faculty, staff, and administration to provide academic or program access accommodations for a student with severe physical impairments. Reasonable accommodations will be provided to address the student's disability within the classrooms and service areas of the College. Accommodations are determined through the DRC. Appropriate accommodations, for example, may include providing a copy of a peer's notes for class lectures, a scribe to record responses or complete forms, provision of adaptive equipment within the classroom or lab setting, assuring building and College accessibility, or any other type of reasonable assistance that will allow the student equal access to the College and its programs.

It is not the responsibility of the College to provide services to meet the personal needs (actions needed regardless of whether the person is a student or not) of the student. Example of those services may include, but are not limited to, transfer from a car/van to a wheelchair; transportation to or from the classroom; administering medication; and addressing toilet, feeding or dressing needs.

Responsibility of the Student

Personal Care Attendants (PCAs) may be required to address the personal needs of a student thus allowing them to participate in College. It is the student's responsibility to hire their own personal care attendant and to secure funding for these services. It is the student's responsibility to have the PCA registered at the DRC and in place prior to any College-related activities, i.e. placement testing, enrollment, and class attendance. The College is not responsible for providing PCA services on an interim basis until the student secures a personal care attendant. The DRC does not participate in the PCA interviewing or hiring process.

Direction of the activities of the personal care attendant while at TMCC is the student's responsibility. The PCA must abide by TMCC's student code of conduct. PCAs will not be allowed to proctor tests. PCAs may assist the student before or after classes but must wait outside the classroom while it is in session, unless given permission by the DRC to do otherwise. If the student requests that the PCA provide note taking services, the College cannot pay the PCA a note taker stipend. It is essential that the student have a back up PCA or an alternative plan of action should the regular PCA not be available to work with that student on a particular day or within a particular class.