Is there a way I can set access to specific form elements? I'm writing a custom ticketing system module for my company and I would like certain form elements disabled based on permissions. Is there a way I can do this without needing to make two separate forms (ex: user form, admin form)

I know for the items array in a menu hook, you can just set 'access arguments.' Preferably I'd like to just use the existing permissions I've already created for my module or even make it role specific.
You can use the FAPI #access property:

$form['some_element']['#access'] = user_access('some permission');