[BREAKING] Staggering number of Berkeley Law students claim they’re disabled as ‘emotional disorders’ skyrocket

A surprising number of students at the elite UC Berkeley School of Law claim to have a “psychological” or other mental disability, according to university data, leading critics to accuse students of trying to game the system to give themselves more time for their exams.

There are 378 law students in UC Berkeley's Disabled Students Program, about a third of enrollment.

This marks a huge change from just five years ago, when only 3% of Berkeley graduate students reported having a disability.

Across the university, the number of students in the disability program has steadily increased, rising from 4,153 in 2020 to 5,711 last year.

The school claims to be "one of the first campuses in the US to begin welcoming students with disabilities." The main types of disabilities on campus are classified as psychological or emotional disorders, as well as ADHD.

The number of claims for physical disability is significantly lower.

Critics say the figures show a “farce” on the part of students to take advantage of educators' thoughtful considerations to gain an advantage in school.

The numbers are absurd, said Andrew Testerman, a law school graduate who examined the numbers.

“At Berkeley Law, there are more disabled law students than male law students,” said Berkeley Law student Andrew Testerman, who analyzed the numbers.

"We are asked to believe that students at elite law schools are much more likely to have disabilities than our nation's seniors." Disability status unfairly gives students advantages, Testerman said.

For example, those classified as disabled had much more time to take the exams.

According to university data, requests for supervision services to accommodate disabilities have skyrocketed from fewer than 4,000 in 2021-2022 to more than 14,000 in 2024-2025.

Teachers and other critics have criticized disability accommodations as unreliable and gaming the system.

“Many people have told me that this is how the rich scam the system to help their children,” a computer science teacher at a West Coast state school who asked to remain anonymous told The Post.

Giving these students more time for their exams is supposedly “fair, but it's just the opposite,” added George Leef of the higher education think tank James G.

Martin Center for Academic Renewal.

“This is even more absurd when you realize that most law school students come from successful families and have achieved good results throughout their years of education,” he explained.

"Apparently the 'social justice' world means we can't have fair exams." UC Berkeley's disability program was apparently intended to address physical disabilities when it was first created.

But in 1982, the word "physical" was dropped from its name to encompass learning disabilities, according to the school's website.

It is in line with the school's diversity programming, where a disability is formally treated as a diversity classification, according to the university's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion data dashboard.

Other schools across the country have seen similar trends.

At nearby Stanford University, for example, 38% of students have registered with the Office of Accessible Education.

Even high school students seem to lean toward the “con.” The number of high school students receiving extra time on college entrance exams has more than tripled in the last decade.

Berkeley Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky told Testerman that the law school has no authority over accommodations and simply compensates.

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