My daughter has been recently diagnosed with dyslexia. My understanding from reading the ACT web site is that they prefer that the high school submit the request for accomodations. I called the guidance counselor and was told that because the college entrance test that high schools in our state administer has changed from the ACT to the SAT that the school can no longer submit requests for accommodations to the ACT organization even though they could do this for the SAT and the test wouldn’t be given at the school anyway. I did an online chat w/someone at ACT and followed up on the phone with the accommodations dept and they say that this is not true and sent me the information as to how the school does this and said that the GC could call them. I sent the explanation to the GC with a copy of the chat. Her response was:
I am not sure who you communicated with - and whether that rep through ACT thought we were still administering the ACT - but I spoke with our Assistant Principal who also confirmed with our District Testing Coordinator that we no longer submit accommodation requests for any outside tests students choose to enroll in. We have had other parents register for the ACT and submit the request for accommodations on their own.
I am concerned that the request won’t be taken as seriously directly from the parent and ACT told me that there is a teacher question sheet. I’m not sure what to do here. I am scared to alienate the GC as she will do an eval on my daughter for college but this just seems wrong. Any advice?
I feel your pain (as I have dealt with clueless GS who thought they knew it all and then, as a parent, you afraid to alienate her) and obviously your GC is wrong…Is there anyway you can escalate to above the GC?
If I understand the new procedure correctly, it now requires the HS to submit on your behalf…i.e you have to register for the test, then give the information to the GC and they have to log in and submit for you…
I submitted my daughter’s accomodation request on my own. It was zero issue for us. She got what she needed - there was a special separate room for those who needed more time on the test. I did send in a separate evaluation that the school did in order to back up the claim, but nothing directly from the school to ACT. Good luck.
I don’t have direct experience with your issue, but I found that when I was trying to get accommodations for my son, it was very helpful to log onto our state’s Ed website and cite a few sections that pertained to ADA and NCLB when I corresponded with the district. I was always very nice about it, but it seemed that if I could show I was knowledgable about what the state was obligated to do, it helped.
One other thing I hve been told about the ACT, is that typically extra time requests are submitted once the test has been registered for. My son had his accommodations from College Board as a freshman, so there is quite a difference in timing. Good luck.
Thanks for all of the advice and support. Technically I don’t think you need a 504 but I’m sure it would be easier to get accommodations if one was in place and the submission came from the school. That was what I was originally asking the GC for and she has been putting me off as my daughter is a pretty good student. But my son has a 504 so this isn’t my first rodeo so I am pushing them to do that. That said she said that a 504 couldn’t be done in time–my daughter is finishing junior year. I’m going to make some calls to the state dept of special education, etc. They may not be legally required to do it and I’m guessing therefore they don’t want to do the work. I may talk to the principal but want to get all of my ducks in a row first. I was just curious if anyone knew if this was required by law or if they had been through this experience. I know they are overworked–it is public school-but seems sad that they won’t help. I also wanted to know if it is standard practice that the school do the submission which is what seemed to be the case from the info on the website and the people I talked to at ACT.