<p>Does anyone know how long it should take to hear back from ACT about request for extended time? DS is taking the test in 2 weeks and we haven't heard anything yet. Request was sent to them before their deadline.</p>
<p>The answer is you just don’t know. In most cases, you’ll hear within about 6 weeks, but this is the peak season and they can sometimes take longer. I always encourage students to apply as early as possible for this reason. If you haven’t heard anything by test day, you run into the problem of whether to even take the test on that date. If the accommodations request is denied, and the student takes the test with standard time and gets an average score, the chances of winning an appeal are significantly diminished. If you’re fairly certain the accommodations will be approved (he gets extra time in school, and has for some time), then he can go ahead and take the test. If you’re less confident about his chances, you may want to postpone. It’s all so messy, isn’t it?</p>
<p>Have your counselor call.</p>
<p>We applied for June test and received an answer in less than 4 weeks-we will be appealing the decision ugh:(. Talk with ACT educational “consultant” and he explained that they are stringently going by the American Disabilty Act. I asked how SAT could allot my child 100% time and audio books and same for the PSAT; 50% time for AP and Sub test with reader and absolutely no accomodations for ACT and the response was that d life was not impacted enough and since she had above intelligence on IQ that she was deemed normal. He stated that accomodations were not for allowing for best outcome for the student. After speaking with him we will submitting more paper trail. Doubt that this will be finished for the June testing. Good luck if anyone can add to this please do because I’m at my wits end trying to navigate these waters for my child.</p>
<p>@Hoosier96 Best of luck to you, but the ACT is getting harder and harder to work with as you’ve already found! My best advice is to focus on the SAT since they have already awarded accommodations.</p>
<p>But if you want to appeal, here’s a few suggestions. If they are “stringently” abiding by the ADA, you need to go over the documentation with a fine toothed comb. Often diagnostic reports aren’t written in ways that support accommodations. You may need to ask for additional letters from doctors/diagnosticians/teachers, etc. If they are concerned about LD with high IQ, point out that intelligence does not preclude the existence of LD, and that qualified individuals have made the diagnosis. Also, have your child write a personal statement stating how the disability affects him/her. This has sometimes helped.</p>
<p>PM me if you’d like to talk specifics. Hang in there.</p>
<p>I haven’t post enough to pm someone yet. I am just learning about what to expect because D wasn’t diagnosis with learning disability until crashing freshman year causing major anxiety and panic attacks. She has been classified with phonic? dyslexia and slow processing. All the classic signs but no teacher would listen when younger:( because she was your typical A student. Once placed in challenging environment she no longer could compensate in the manner she had use to using. Using audio books have been a god send this year and extended time. But anxiety still kicks in before EVERY test working with counselor for this. Have spoken with D psychologist and our school psychologist is gathering more information from teachers. We know she can score well on ACT because the school allowed accomodations for this. No accomodations for practice PSAT and it was a disaster.</p>
<p>Follow-up: DS has been approved for extended time on ACT!! I was looking over the application to see if I could find a customer service phone # and saw that approval notices are emailed and only rejections are sent by letter. Turns out it’s been in DS’s inbox for a few days.</p>
<p>Mom4cw, I had a similar situation … I was actually making the call to the ACT office TODAY to check on the status of my son’s appeal (he was denied extended time the first time we applied), and as the lady on the phone said that he did have accommodations I looked at his ACT ticket and it said in small writing on the top right hand corner “Group C extended time”! I couldn’t believe it!</p>
<p>My son had received extended time on the SAT with pretty much no effort. His counselor applied for the extended time and he got it right away. But the ACT was different. I felt that the ACT might be easier for an LD kid because many people online had had that experience with their kids. My son is diagnosed with High Functioning Autism/Inattentive ADD, and I was just flabbergasted that he couldn’t get extended time. In fact, it made me angry. Even if I felt like I couldn’t get extended time for my son, I wanted to TRY – because I really hoped that I could provide some help for other people so that THEIR KID could get extended time. So I contacted his school caseworker, who wrote an apparently very good letter documenting through each teacher how often he needed extended time with each of his classes in Junior year. </p>
<p>It had been recommended online (and in ACT literature) that getting psycho-educational test reports proving the need for extended time on tests would be necessary. We’ve done this type of thing so many times, it just amazed me that we were being asked to do it again, at an incredible cost. I decided that in the short-run, I would NOT do that, but I would include diagnosis documentation out the wazzoo, testing from a local place like Sylvan learning center (which also proved evidence of tutoring, another thing they requested), and literally EVERY IEP from the last ELEVEN YEARS. The stack we sent to the ACT board was HUGE.</p>
<p>I really have to wonder if overloading the ACT with huge amounts of documentation is what finally gets them to quit denying extended time. I had been told that we would have to apply three or four times before they would accept my son’s request, if they ever would. More likely, they would continue to deny the request. Even at my son’s ADD doctor’s office, a place where ALL of the women who work there have a son with ADHD who applied and was denied extended time on the ACT – they discouraged me, saying a letter from the doctor wouldn’t help. </p>
<p>Needles to say, I am shocked that he got extended time on only his first appeal. </p>
<p>Lesson is – seriously, when you appeal to the ACT for extended time denial, BURY THEM IN PAPER!</p>