Accommodation Breakdown: Help Card
What’s the Accommodation? Student will be provided a help card. How's it supposed to be implemented? What are potential problems?
What’s the Accommodation?
Student will be provided a help card.
A help card accommodation allows students to discreetly request support without speaking, raising their hands, or drawing unwanted attention. Students place a designated card on their desk to signal the need for assistance. This nonverbal cue lets the teacher know the student would benefit from clarification, extra time, or another pre-agreed support.
Once help is provided or the student no longer needs assistance, the card is removed.
Help cards are used within a structured system. Staff can track usage to ensure the student is using the card appropriately and not as a means of avoiding work. IEP or Section 504 teams can then use the data to refine support and build the student’s self-advocacy and self-regulation skills.
Who Benefits from Help Card Accommodations?
Help card accommodations are especially useful for students who:
struggle with self-advocacy and anxiety,
have language-based learning disabilities, and/or
are easily overwhelmed in classroom settings.
This accommodation supports independence and dignity. It gives students a way to ask for help without having to announce, “I NEED HELP!”
In its document “Developing Trauma-Sensitive Classrooms to Support Students and Educators”, Institute of Education Sciences (IES) dives deep into ways educators can “minimize the activation of students’ trauma responses . . .” IES notes that classroom-based strategies that support predictable routines and offer visual cues can reduce the impact of trauma on student behavior and learning.
