Requests for disability accommodations at college campuses are on the rise, leaving administrators struggling to determine whether or not flexibility is warranted in every case.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, universities are required to provide “reasonable accommodations” for students with disabilities. Often this means allowing those with special needs extra time or a quiet room for exams.

But colleges from New York to Texas are reporting a dramatic increase in recent years in the number of students claiming that they need special accommodations, in many cases due to psychological conditions like depression and bipolar disorder.

And some students are looking for far more than an extra few minutes on a test, asking for extensions on assignment deadlines and forgiveness for missed classes.

That’s leaving university disability offices and professors in a tight spot, trying to distinguish those with legitimate needs from potential opportunists, all while working to ensure that students meet appropriate standards.

“There’s the danger that we take too much care and when they hit the real world that same kind of support isn’t there,” a dean at the University of Wyoming in Laramie told The Wall Street Journal. To read more click here.

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