My formerly homeschooled son is gifted but also has severely slow processing speed (7th percentile) and anxiety. His community college grants him 100% extra time on tests, extended breaks.
Five weeks ago, we sent the College Board the required documentation (WAIS-IV and Woodcock Johnson), plus a lengthy letter from his college’s disability counselor and a letter from his therapist.
I’ve been reading stories of students who were turned down for accommodations and am starting to feel a little nervous. Questions:
Is it an “all or nothing” type of decision (Do they sometimes grant some requests but not all? Or do they consider the entire application and say Yes or No to the whole enchilada?). In other words, are overall chances better if you only ask for 1-2 accommodations as opposed to 3-4? Obviously, I wish I’d asked this before we mailed the package. :-/
Is there any appeals process if the requests are rejected? Or does a student have to wait until the next SAT testing date and go through the accommodations request process again?
Normally they might ask for earlier school records… evaluations, teacher reports, IEPs and diagnoses going back several years etc… but with homeschooling I don’t know.
When was he diagnosed, and do you have documentation going back in time prior to CC? That would help him.
There is an appeals process if rejected. My daughter’s request for extended time (50%) was denied despite a long history of receiving extra time in school and letters from teachers, tutors and psychiatrists/psychologists (as well as the testing results). We were able to appeal right away, but to no avail. She did receive accommodations for the ACT-they approved her in a week, which is odd as a lot of people say it’s easier to get accommodations for the SAT than for the ACT.
@twogirls He was not officially diagnosed with slow processing speed until a year ago (it was the first time he’d been tested for it).
Obviously, on paper, I was his “teacher” through his homeschool years (really he just taught himself), but I doubt they’re going to take my word for it, right?
He also had one tutor who wrote a lengthy report documenting his much slower pace, but my son is an extreme rule follower and he read on the College Board site that such report has to come from a “teacher” who has proctored a test, so he nixed the tutor’s report from being included in his packet.
@JeanJeanie, is your son also on the autism spectrum? I ask because you mentioned “extreme” rule-following, a common trait among kids with Asperger’s. If this is the case, he may be able to get an accommodation based on that diagnosis.
My son also has slow processing speed, not enough to need extra time on standardized tests, but enough to make certain academic skills, like learning to speak a foreign language, very difficult to master.
@Emsmom1 ohhhh, my heart just broke a little (for both you and me!).
I’d heard it’s easier to get accomodations from ACT, but my son seems stuck on the SAT.
I realize it sounds pie in the sky, but I was kind of hoping it would be a situation where they might offer you 50% time if they reject the request for 100% time. I think he’d still take the test if that were the case. Otherwise…no. He is always the last to finish every assignment and test in his classes.
I realize the College Board is mainly trying to crack down on cheaters. If they only knew this kid–he goes to extreme lengths to do things exactly by the rules.
If you google “SAT accommodations lawsuit” there is an article about changes at the College Board in relation to accommodations. It appears there have been some reforms since my daughter applied for accommodations.
Years ago, I applied for accommodations for my DD. I had no idea I was supposed to go through the school to get them. Oops. I carefully dotted every “i” and crossed every “t” as we asked for 3 things. Two of them were awarded as asked. The third one we got a variation of what we asked. She needed physical accomodations and asked for breaks after every section, but no extra time. She got breaks as needed, but was put in a room with everyone with the same accomodation and they were all to stop when anyone asked for a break. Fortunately no one asked for a break other than between sections. It actually had the potential of being worse than no accomodations. She took the SAT once and then waived accomodations on the APs. ACT accomodations went through the school and she got what was requested.
I was hoping to file our request through my son’s school, but it’s a community college and while the counselor there is super helpful generally, she said she had never dealt with SAT’s and asked us to take the lead.
@JeanJeanie my daughter was approved for double time on both the act and sat. while you son may be focused on the sat just know that double time is a long time to sit in a room and focus on a test. At some point it becomes a bit of a double edged sword. The kid needs the time but it’s exhausting and natural to lose focus over such a long period. when my daughter took the PSAT she said she just checked out at some point For the act you can request not only the double time but to space out the test over several days. Not sure about your son but that was much better for my daughter and she never took the sat.
@Emsmom1@JeanJeanie the College Board streamlined its process for getting accommodations effective January 2017. https://www.collegeboard.org/students-with-disabilities/whats-new. Basically now, if the student has been getting an accommodation in a 504 or IEP, it will be automatically granted by the College Board. I’m not sure how this works in the homeschooling situation though.
We originally applied for accommodations for my D19 in Fall 2016 in preparation for taking the PSAT as a sophomore. She was approved for 50% extra time for ADHD but our request for mp3 audio was denied. Then we reapplied in January 2017 after the new policy came out, and pointed out that she was getting mp3 audio (“when possible”) in her 504. That time we got a quick response from the College Board granting the audio accommodation, which automatically comes with double time (which you need because of how long it takes to listen to the audio!).
Now our D19 is a junior. A couple weeks ago we found out that our school district is paying for all juniors to take the ACT (regular version, not ACT Aspire). So we applied for extra time and audio for the ACT. We submitted our 504 and neuropsych report documenting her reading difficulties and got a response within a week giving her the requested accommodations on the ACT.
@JeanJeanie if your request is denied then I think you should appeal or resubmit on the basis that your son receives accommodations through a “formal, school based plan.” The College Board website outlines what types of plans besides 504 and IEP’s qualify for automatic approval:
@Dancer41 With the PSAT and double time they do it in one day, which I agree is too much and causes burnout. But with the SAT and double time, they spread the test over two days: Saturday and Sunday. That worked out well for my D19.
Never understood why these tests are timed. Kids should be given as much time as they want (within reason) then it tests what they know rather than how fast they can read.
@Corinthian, I did see that and asked the SSD coordinator if she would file; she said she had no experience with it and preferred that my son and I do it instead. She’s super helpful otherwise, so I didn’t push it. But she did write a detailed letter on DS’s behalf explaining what accommodations he receives at his school and why. She is a disability counselor with a Master’s. Fingers crossed.
50% extra time seems to be the standard accommodation offered, if any, to kids with dyslexia or processing speed issues. If the dyslexia/processing speed issues are serious enough, The College Board and ACT are able to offer 100% extra time. This does extend the test to over 6 or 7 hours. They can offer the test to be taken over two consecutive days. However, what a staff psychologist at TCB told me was that they tend to reserve this for cases in which the disability is physical and not “just” cognitive. In my son’s case, his version of the disability is severe and all input and output are slow and fatiguing (he couldn’t read in 3rd grade, hand-copying a paragraph in 4th grade took him over an hour and wiped him out for the rest of the day, and if he does too much reading/writing in a compressed period of time, he gets exhausted and then gets a headache and can be out for days) and mask a brain that is close to the very top of the IQ distribution. We’ve never known the cause for this, but documented it starting in 2nd grade and presented what evidence there was from teachers, doctors and parents. It took a year to persuade TCB, though most of the time was spent waiting for them to evaluate information/respond, and got easier when we talked with the staff psychologist. They did ultimately grant 100% extra time that had to be taken over two days if the test was longer. But, part of what we needed to do was show that the issue was physical. I think other people have had different experiences. For my son, this took him from getting mid-40th percentile with no accommodations on standardized tests to >99th percentile on each of CR, Math and Writing.
My daughter is ADHD/anxious and we asked for 50% extra time. The College Board granted immediately but the ACTs denied (and she though the ACTs were a much better test for her). Her diagnosis was late – she was having severe medical issues prior to that (it looked like she might go blind) – but on appeal, I got additional tests, got teachers from elementary school to explain why the diagnosis that came late was evident early on, and explained the logic overall. I’m very good a crafting logically persuasive arguments and the ACT granted the accommodation.
Incidentally, I have a number of posts on CC that describe aspects of the experience, but you can usually search for Shawbridge and find the posts.