<p>Whats involved in getting special accommodations from the college board for a mental health problem? How intrusive is it? Would you recommend it in this case? </p>
<p>S was diagnosed with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) at age 6 and has wrestled with it for a decade. Because he performs well academically and wants privacy regarding his mental health problem, we previously have not sought academic accommodations. </p>
<p>S will take the SATs this coming academic year. Timed tests pose difficulties for him because he inevitably loses time due to OCD distractions. Given his prior experience with testing, we expect that he would score (1) somewhat above average on a timed test or (2) very high on a test where timing is less pressing.</p>
<p>Asking the College Board for accommodations (extra time), brings up many conflicting thoughts. While we know that doing well on the SAT would help him in the college application process, we appreciate his strong desire for privacy and know that he would be admitted to some reasonably good colleges even without high SAT scores. (The rest of his academic record is strong. He has interesting extra curricular activities and he is articulate and self-awarea byproduct of many years of therapy.)</p>
<p>So do we just let him take the SAT without accommodations or do we urge him to request extra time?</p>
<p>I am a huge fan of accommodating students whose LD's or other challenges impair their functioning on tests, so that the tests do not truly reflect the child's level of knowledge and achievement in the subject area. We had a battle royal with the ETS to get appropriate accommodation for my kid, including a time-consuming and stressful appeal with maybe 20 different supporting documents, but in our case, it was well worth it.</p>
<p>All this said, given the ETS' regulations, I think it may be very difficult for you to obtain accommodations on SAT's if your S hasn't had the accommodations you're requesting on tests in school; if the school doesn't have a written plan on file for him, complete with diagnosis and recommended/implemented accommodations; if the original diagnosing psychiatrist or psychologist, or another mh professional along the way didn't recommend the specific accommodations you're requesting from ETS; and if your son is already functioning well (although perhaps not at the level of his knowledge and ability) without accommodation, which the ETS might try to discern from his school performance, or how he did on PSAT's without accommodations. (The ETS seems to have a thing about accommodating kids they think will perform at the national average without accommodation, almost no matter how severely the child is challenged, or how inconsistent the national average is with the kid's high level of otherwise accommodated performance. This isn't in their written material, but they said it outright to me and to several other people with whom I spoke in my quest for information in mounting our S's appeal.)</p>
<p>In terms of privacy, SAT accommodation requests are made by the school and not by the family. If your son is home-schooled, you're OK on the privacy front. But if he is at a public or private school, I'm not sure how you could withhold the diagnosis from the school official assigned to be the ETS liason for LD and other kids with relevant challenges. Both the school and the ETS are legally required not to disclose the info, though.</p>
<p>I think you would be wise to go to the College Board website and take a look at the guidelines for accommodations put out by the Services for Students with Disabilities office there. I am not suggesting that these guidelines are insurmountable, but you might be wise to talk with a professional in your area who does advocacy with the ETS/College Board to get a sense of what you're up against and what you might have to do in order to prevail.</p>