Emailing Professors About ADHD Extensions: Templates and Timing
Two copy-and-adapt extension emails for students with ADHD, one with registered accommodations and one without, what to leave out and how to follow up.
The essay is due Friday at midnight. It is Wednesday. You have known for a week that it was not going to happen and have spent that week not writing the email, because writing the email means admitting it, and because you do not know what to say. Working out how to ask a professor for an extension with ADHD in the picture is mostly a matter of having the words ready before you need them, so the asking takes four minutes instead of four days.
Below are two templates, one for students with registered accommodations and one for students without them yet, with notes on timing, what to leave out, and what to do when there is no reply. Copy them into a note on your phone now, while nothing is due.
Before the deadline vs after: two different emails
An extension request sent before the deadline is a request. One sent after is an appeal, and it is answered by different rules, often a late-penalty policy in the syllabus that the professor may not be able to override. The single biggest improvement most students with ADHD can make is to send the email earlier: 48 hours before the deadline is comfortable, 24 is fine, the morning of is still a request. Eleven p.m. on the due date is not.
- Before: ask for a specific new date, usually two to five days out. Shorter asks get more yeses. Say what you will submit and when.
- After: submit whatever you have immediately, then email. A late partial submission plus a request to submit the rest is far easier to say yes to than a blank and a story.
- Either way: check the syllabus first. Many courses now have a no-questions-asked grace period or a set number of late days per term. If one exists, use it and skip the email entirely.
If you keep sending the after version, the fix is upstream: a term-level view of every deadline so the week it lands is visible from a distance. Our post on time blindness and why deadlines are difficult covers why the deadline keeps arriving as a surprise.
Template 1: with registered accommodations
If your accommodation letter includes extensions or flexibility with deadlines, the professor already has the letter and the email is procedural. Some schools require you to go through the accessibility office's form instead of, or as well as, emailing; check your letter. Where email is the route, this is enough.
- Subject: [COURSE CODE] Assignment 2 extension request under accommodations
- Dear Professor [surname],
- I am registered with [Accessibility Services] and my accommodation letter for this course includes extensions on assignments. I would like to use that accommodation for Assignment 2, currently due Friday, October 24. I am requesting a new due date of Tuesday, October 28.
- I have completed the research and outline and will submit through the course portal by that date. Please let me know if you would prefer I submit the request through the accessibility office's form as well.
- Thank you, [Name], [student number]
That is the whole email. No reason is needed, because the reason is in the letter. If the professor asks for one, a single line, I am managing a flare-up of a documented condition, is sufficient. Our answer on how ADHD accommodations work at Canadian universities and colleges explains what the letter can include and how extensions are usually administered.
Template 2: without accommodations yet
Without a letter, you are asking for discretion, and discretion is granted more readily to a short, specific, early email than to a long, vague, late one. You do not have to disclose ADHD. Many students choose not to in this email and do so later, through the accessibility office, where disclosure is confidential and attached to something concrete.
- Subject: [COURSE CODE] Request for a short extension on Assignment 2
- Dear Professor [surname],
- I am writing to ask for a short extension on Assignment 2, due Friday, October 24. I have been dealing with a health issue this month that has affected my ability to keep up, and I would like to request a new due date of Tuesday, October 28.
- I have the research done and a partial draft, and I will submit by the new date. I am also in the process of registering with [Accessibility Services] so that this is handled formally going forward.
- I understand if the course policy does not allow this and will submit what I have on Friday if so. Thank you for considering it.
- [Name], [student number]
The last line matters. It tells the professor you will not vanish if the answer is no, which is often the thing they are quietly worried about. The line about registering is optional, but if it is true it both explains the gap in documentation and signals that this is not going to be a weekly email. The post on ADHD accommodation letters and how to get one in Canada covers getting that letter so the next request can use template 1.
What not to include
- The whole story. Three paragraphs about the month you have had reads as pressure, and professors are not the right audience for it. One line.
- Your diagnosis, unless you want to. ADHD is a legitimate reason and there is no shame in naming it, but you are not obliged to, and an email is a less controlled place to disclose than the accessibility office. Health issue or documented condition is enough.
- Medication details. Never. Not the name, not the dose, not that you ran out.
- Other courses. Telling a professor you prioritised their colleague's midterm over their essay does not land the way you hope.
- An apology spiral. One sorry at most. Repeated apologies ask the professor to reassure you, which is work.
- Open-ended asks. Could I have more time means the professor has to design the extension. Propose the date.
- Excuses that can be checked and found wanting. Do not invent a family emergency. Health issue is true and sufficient.
Following up when there's no reply
Professors miss emails. A missing reply is not a no, and it is not a yes either, so do not treat silence as an extension.
- If you sent the request 48 hours out and have heard nothing by 24 hours out, reply to your own email with one line: Following up on the request below in case it was missed. Thank you.
- Same day, check whether the course has a teaching assistant and copy them on the follow-up. TAs often administer extensions and read email more often.
- If the deadline arrives with no answer, submit what you have, on time, through the portal. Then send one more line: I have submitted a partial draft as the request was not confirmed; if the extension is possible I will submit the complete version by Tuesday.
- If you have registered accommodations and the professor does not respond to a request under them, the accessibility office can follow up on your behalf. That is part of their job and it is not escalating; it is the process.
A checklist before you hit send
- Course code in the subject line, and the assignment named.
- A specific new date, two to five days out.
- One line of reason, or none if you are using accommodations.
- What you have done so far and what you will submit.
- A line that says what you will do if the answer is no.
- Sent from your university email, at least 24 hours before the deadline.
- Saved as a template on your phone, with the brackets ready for next time.
The first one is the hardest to send. Once the template exists, the next one is a Wednesday-morning task that takes four minutes, which is about what it should have been all along.
This article is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a licensed healthcare professional about your individual situation. If you are in crisis or thinking about self-harm, call or text 9-8-8, Canada’s Suicide Crisis Helpline, at any time.
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