My child’s second appeal has been pending for 5 months!
My child has had a visual issues including hyperopia, strabismus (her eyes cross and she does not use her eyes together) since infancy. She has a public school 504 for many years and has been getting accommodations since elementary school. We thought it would be slam dunk and sent in forms using old eye doctor reports in September 2020 in the middle of the pandemic and they denied her for using old reports that did not recommend accommodations (she was 10, no one was asking if she needed them) and not sending in teacher reports. We sent in the revised documents plus teacher reports last spring (teachers reported she would fail without accommodations) and they took 3 months to come back with a denial because they thought her vision was fine (essentially what they were saying, which is ridiculous, it is not fine! and never has been). We sent in new reports including updated reports from her eye doctor explaining in detail why her vision is not fine and never has been. We also sent in her latest 504 which is exactly the same as all prior 504s and supports her need for extra time and enlarged print. To date they have not gotten back to us! The school called a few weeks ago because we had more information to add to her file and was told if they add anything that resets the clock for looking over her file. The APs are in a month, I am starting to panic. They said they would expedite meanwhile most kids at her school got a good response in less than amonth. It is impossible to reach a supervisor, the school tried.
She got accommodations from ACT in a week! but this will not help with APs. It has been 5 months!
Suggestions? Other than hire a lawyer which we cannot afford?! Should I contact the US Civil Rights Division? The state department of education? Other suggestions
Thank you yes. As noted " Where documentation is required, it may take College
Board up to 7 weeks to review any necessary" I think something is wrong with their process! It has taken longer than that last spring (3 months) and this year (5 months). We have complied with the information providing, teacher reports, guidance counselor reports, pediatrician reports, and eye doctor reports and a legally binding 504! I hate the fact that the school is the one that sends this is in and supposedly cannot keep a copy of the file to show me, I just wonder if there is a glitch somewhere
What about this online method of checking? I thought College Board made some changes this year to how a student logs in to their account(using e-mail instead of username)
Have you tried
I know this is a frustrating process. So there are many variables with this. Varsity Blues cases raised the bar significantly due to the abuse of accommodations. Schools staff legally have to sign off on everything.
What accommodations are you asking for? Are these in place when she takes other tests at school?
Did they approve any of them?
Did she take the PSAT without them? Any previous APs with no accommodations? If so, what were the scores.
For what it is worth, AP scores do not matter as much as other things to most colleges. Even highly selective ones. Georgetown may be the only one asking for score to be sent and not self reported.
She gets the accommodations on each and every test in school, double time, breaks, enlarged print and no scantrons. She uses the accommodations on every school test, she gets everything enlarged on every classroom handout. Sometimes even double time is not enough but that is on her. Her teachers and guidance counselor reported this on the CB forms. She has a 504, the request tracks it exactly. She takes APs, she works very hard, I would like her to get credit for them if possible. She took the PSATs without them and could not finish half the test and did not break 1000. She took the PreACTs with accommodations and finished the test and got a respectable score.
Actually I do not think this is the Varsity Blues because her case is so straightforward. She has been getting documented accommodations since 3rd grade! A 504 since before high school (well before varsity blues). Meanwhile there are students I know personally (who needed and) who got accommodations for the first time in 10th grade and they were granted in 3 weeks by CB for the PSAT
I hope College Board responds soon in your favor. It is very complicated and i agree with @Pathnottaken that other factors (not merits of your request) may be involved.
Consider asking this advocacy group for assistance, years ago i found their book in the library and it had sample letters of how to request reconsideration, etc,
Edited to add:
I do wonder if the high school SSD Coordinator followed an online ptocess according to
I have seen several students not get double time in the past few years. But some have come back with time and a half.
Definitely sounds like you have the prior use of accommodations documented - that is usually where things get off track in high school because many of the kids do not want the accommodations and will not use the time. That is not the case here.
Keep pushing CB on this. I would use the PSAT and PreACT difference as an example if you have not already done so.
Sorry you are having to deal with this. The timeframe is tough.
While I still would have kept appealing, I would have appreciated her getting time and a half, it is something
Yes this helped another student I know. In that case the school administered parts of a PSAT and compared it to the October PSAT and the kid got extra time.
Everyone in her school is perplexed, even the teachers cannot understand this, based on where @Hippobirdy directed me (thank you), the DOJ says Redirecting… that a child with a 504 should get those for the SAT?! This is beyond ridiculous! I will include her ACT accommodations in the next letter I write to them. I feel like something is wrong here and someone wrote something incorrectly but I am not sure where or why. I mean 5 months and 2 prior denials for a kid with a 504?!
It sounds like certain documents or language was misunderstood by the College Board. And, were all the requested updated medical records submitted by January 18 online?
There’s still time for College Board to approve
Sounds crazy for approval to take so long. I hope someone at Wrightslaw website or other advocacy group can be of assistance, too.
Yes I have seen that although unfortunately not until after the visual report was issued but it does state that she has a turn of a certain degree, that her eyes do not track and while glasses do correct the hyperopia, she still has visual fatigue and that she has no binocular vision.
I honestly cannot understand how they can require someone to undergo vision therapy in order to get accommodations?! In any case she had that when she was younger and it did not help. I had heard that they are particularly difficult with visual disabilities and even the tone of what you posted show that, I mean come on, for example it says the blind students need to decide whether they prefer to be read to or have access to braille?! Seriously?
The school teachers have written extensively on how and why she needs accommodations.
I am so sorry for all the aggravation! My only suggestion is for your school to elevate this to central admin level. There may be someone there who knows how to get past this logjam.
Thank you but I am not sure what that is or how to do that. My school personnel are lovely but it is a small school and the woman who is charge of testing who has been there for well over 10 years has no guidance on our next steps. Last year when the appeal was denied she said she had only encountered this one other time and that family gave up! If you have any suggestions or how to get to the central administration I think they would be happy to implement, I would assume our principal would be willing to write something, no one is sure how to go about it and of course while my daughter is important I doubt they want to burn any bridges at this point
When she called almost a month ago, she was not allowed to add anything to the application without it triggering a new 7 week period (which would take us past the APs or too close to them (the AP accommodations have to occur a week before the test) especially as none of my daughter’s applications take 7 weeks even though the response is normally done in 3 weeks for our area) and they said they would expedite it. As of yesterday still pending. They would not let her talk to a supervisor. When I called last time it was pending I got the same response and I am usually pretty good on the phone. They were polite but firm that my daughter’s file is being reviewed by the appropriate person
I really have no clue especially as every single one of teachers is puzzled as to why this is such a problem since she needs extra time
If you haven’t done so yet, call CB’s accommodations group directly and ask what specific tests they need. Years ago the visual skills assessment reports such as “teaming and tracking” and other visual deficiencies were never enough. At the time, they preferred a neuropsychologist report, or a specific test administered by a qualified professional (language-speech pathologist etc.) that would be included in such a report (Gort, WIAT, Taps ??). They may use a test that can evaluate her performance with and without accommodations. Often a children with visual skills issues have underlying reading disorders (word discrimination, decoding, visual memory etc.) that aren’t detected early because they will work hard to compensate. I read that the process was supposed to change a few years ago (school accommodations = CB accommodations), but apparently it hasn’t.
We are also in College Board AP accommodations pending limbo so I empathize. I would call the College Board accommodations line and explain you are well past their 7 week timeline and would like your case escalated.
And make sure the school doesn’t send in new docs unless CB asks for them after denying your case! Our school did 3 days before the end of the 7 week decision window which reset the clock (new employee who didn’t realize the ramifications; she was just trying to be helpful).
Double time is much more difficult to get than time and a half, not because it makes any difference for those who don’t need it (a la varsity blues), but because it shakes up the entire testing process, extends it into a two day testing process, rather than one day, for SATs, and I presume APs too if a student is taking multiple exams. But still, it sounds obvious for your daughter that this is necessary, and you’ve submitted all the documentation, over and over!
(new employee who didn’t realize the ramifications; she was just trying to be helpful).