My son will be having a triennial IEP this year. Next year he will be in high school and I am planning to ask for SAT and AP accommodations. He has dysgraphia and ADHD. He uses a keyboard for all written work. He currently attends a homeschool charter (public independent study) which means that we will be quite dependent on his SAT 2 tests and APs for college apps.
Since we are having a full tri with evals, I am wondering what kinds of testing was useful for sending to the College Board as well as the ACT for requesting accommodations. He will need to keyboard for AP tests, need to have extra time, and need to be in a quiet place without distractions for testing. He has received accommodations in the past for state testing and has had an IEP since preschool.
Any suggestions for specific tests that I should ask the school for?
Please refer to the statement on documentation of the need for accommodations. It identifies and explains required components of documentation such as history, diagnosis, recency of diagnosis. FUNCTIONAL LIMITATIONS, and so on. Specific tests are not required; clinicians know what instruments to use. The information prepared to document the need for accommodations of a college-admissions testing is the same information required by disability services at college. Documentation criteria found on AHEAD.org are helpful to clarify what information is needed.
Information included on an IEP and in a psycho-educational report overlaps with but differs from what is required in documentation of a disability. The diagnosis is a school-based report probably provides an eligibility, meaning your student qualifies for special education and related services. Instead documentation requires a clinical diagnosis to qualify for civil rights protections through provision of accommodations that address the functional limitations of the disability.
There are lots of in and outs! Basically, your student will be entering a very different educational environment. The IDEA ends with high school except for the contributions you. teachers and many others made to get your child ready for college. The accommodations your student used in high school may not be appropriate for the test or for college-level accommodations.
You certainly should request accommodations used in the past, but there is no assurance that they will be provided Is key boarding reasonable and necessary? Is a scribe needed to bubble the scantron? What precisely is the problem?
Prior practice and preference alone are insufficient justification. Helpful is not relevant. Instead, you need to provide specific information how the requested accommodation compensates for the disability. Lots of kids request and receive extended time on admissions and in college–it’s a near universal request–but rarely is a reason provided. Explain.
Distraction-free environments are often requested. Testing sites are heavily proctored for distractions and group sizes are small so test environments are pretty quiet and have limited visual distractions. Students with disabilities, moreover, test in small groups. So what more is needed? The balance involved is ensuring your student has the accommodations s/he needs because of the funclims of the disability versus protecting the rights of other students from testees with an unfair advantage. It cuts both ways.
You and your child could help the process by thinking about the disability–what kinds of problems routinely occur–and what helps compensate. Kids really do need to know why parents and teachers think particular accommodations are needed.
Please, I am not being mean!!! However, it is frustrating when parents ask what tests of ask for from a group who does not know your child. People who do clinical testing know very well how to gather and evaluate information to answer specific diagnostic questions. Would you ask people on this forum to suggest specific tests for your child’s next physical? Would you give those tests to your doctor to administer without knowing about them? Please prepare questions you need answered rather than a list of specific tests for a student who is approaching college, keyboards, gets ET and reduced distraction test environments. End of snit.
DD was identified for LD’s in first grade, and had private neuro-psych testing in 2nd and 9th grade, and Public School IEP testing in 2nd and 5th grade. Despite this long history of documentation, her 9th grade tester recommended timed and untimed testing for the College Board on the reading comprehension, math and written expression tests.
DD also has had use of a key board since elementary school, due to a disconnect between her brain and fine-motor skills–different reason then dysgraphia. DD only asked for use of a keyboard for the essay, and this was granted by SAT. Her neuro-psych testing included visual-motor tests.
Stamina is necessary to do the time and 1/2 testing–it was a whole day affair for DD because she had unlimited time for breaks between tests, per the SAT accommodations. The other alternative is to ask for double time, and the tests are split over two days. Not sure I could have gotten DD to go back for a second day
DD’s tests results range from “Very Superior” to “Extremely Low”, so just because a student can do very well in some areas doesn’t mean they shouldn’t receive accommodations for other reasons. DD’s grades were As and Bs with accommodations in HS.
