My younger son dropped his 504 plan in middle school, so we did not attempt to get accommodations. I pity whoever tried to read his chicken scratches. I saw the photocopies of his essays and I could barely read them. It amazes me that they don’t want people to write essays on the computer, it would surely be so much easier to read for everyone.
Ugh. Saga continues. Just having dinner with my son and we were talking about whether he would take the ACT again and when and he says “mom…wasn’t I supposed to get to use the computer for my ACT test essay? The school didn’t give it to me.” WHAT? He forgot to bring it up earlier as he’s been focused on his AP tests (no accommodations) and because he confused what he was supposed to get on the ACT. Wth. Parents…you have to be on top of this every step of the way. And he goes to a school with a strong, supportive LR program and this fell through the cracks. Haven’t gotten the results from his April test yet, but very sad for him that his accommodations were not met. And this is the struggle he has faced every day as a student with different learning needs.
Did he ask for a computer when he took the ACT?
I’m sorry he is going through this all…but he needs to advocate for himself. It’s a skill he will need in college.
agreed. Frustrating that he did not. He says he was confused as there was so much discussion regarding College Board tests (SAT and AP) and ACT.
There are official paperwork documents that testing agencies require in application for test accommodations. If you don’t follow the specific protocol, then the accommodations requested are unlikely to be granted. Do you have a current formal written education-psych evaluation report prepared by a licensed educational psychologist? This is a report filled with LD-related test result statistics and quantitative evaluation. Ed-psych report costs $2000 - $4000 range, and contains one or two days of tests, interviews, and evaluations, please report preparation.
@higgins2013 The OP’s son had the accommodations approved but didn’t get them for the test.
To the OP – I’m sorry this happened to your S on a standardized test. If he takes it again I’d recommend that he speak to the proctor before the test starts and make sure his accommodations are lined up. He should walk in with a copy of the approval of the accommodations so there can be no question. Looking forward you should stress to him that in college it will be his responsibility to know his accommodations and arrange for them with each professor. Hope he ended up doing great!
@happy1 I agree with your post completely. This has been another wake up call for us. I would never in a million years have guessed that he would not have advocated for himself or questioned this. I really can not understand why. We clearly still have work to do. The school has emailed me back today. The LR department was extremely apologetic and accepted responsibility, but please understand that I do not blame the school. Am I frustrated? Yes. But in my eyes all three parties dropped the ball- the school, my son, and myself.
Even though we think our students should self-advocate, and must self-advocate, this is still a growing time and they are learning. Mistakes happen by all. I am thankful that we have plenty of time to have him test several more times if necessary and this has been a learning experience for my son, for certain.
My point to parents is to start the process early. Apply early for accommodations. Leave plenty of time for appeals and second appeals. And leave plenty of time for testing in case something goes wrong. It has been truly a shock to me- the many hiccups we have had given my son’s documentation, the strength of his school resource program and my advocacy. If we experience struggles, I can’t imagine what others must experience.
My son applied for CB accommodations 2 years ago, spring of freshman year, so he would have them in place for the PSAT fall of sophomore year. He has dysgraphia and we had no trouble getting several accommodations that he needed, including a typing accommodation. The documentation was 2 page letter from the PT he sees explaining the diagnosis and the need for each accommodation. Those accommodations have also been in his 504 all along.
So I’m going to guess that the difficulty getting the typing accommodation is because he doesn’t have a 504/IEP and/or because of something about the documentation. Based on my son’s experience and the experience of the child of a good friend, I’m going to say that excellent grades do not stand in the way of accommodations.
I understand that you’ve been through the appeals process, but have you spoken directly to someone at the SSD office? They have a line for parents. Perhaps you can get someone to explain what the problem is and tell you if there’s anything you can do about the typing.
The assistant principal in charge of standardized testing at my son’s high school is a first class idiot, so I won’t even say I trust but verify. I just verify. About a week before every standardized test, I email the AP to make sure we’re on the same page about which accommodations my son is getting for the upcoming test and to ask specifically if they’ve been arranged. On the day of the test, I make sure my son has a copy of his eligibility letter, remind him of what accommodations he’s getting and tell him to get to the room a few minutes early to confirm that they’re properly set up for him and to call me immediately if they’re not. Yes, possibly helicoptery, but I’ve seen them mess it up, though fortunately not for him. I’m confident that he’ll be able to advocate for himself when he needs to, but for right now, I’m happy to let him concentrate on the test itself and to be the one who deals with the administrative nonsense.
Good luck.
My memory says that for College Board, documentation of accommodations at school are required. Is that right? Colleges, on the other hand, will rely on documentation provided by a neuropsych. evaluation or doctor, and don’t absolutely require documentation of high school accommodations. Someone correct me on the CB but that is what I remember.
If a kid is diagnosed AFTER high school, then the CB will still grant accommodations, with high school accommodations and performance rendered irrelevant.
Public schools will deny accommodations when a kid is doing well, no matter what the neuropsych. evaluation says. I know this for a fact from experience as well as participation in groups for parents.
In our experience, high school accommodations are not required in order to get them in college, if recent documentation by a neuropsyh. or MD is provided.
We didn’t bother to ask for accommodations, though I suppose we could have. I had read that the essay portion didn’t matter much for the ACT/SAT, and that many kids do poorly on those. My son had an IEP in elementary school, and a 504 now that he is in high school. He’s had keyboarding as a requirement since elementary school. He had speech issues when he was younger, so the IEP got him the therapy he needed at school. The keyboarding is because he has always had issues with handwriting and getting his thoughts out coherently when using pencil and paper. His thoughts go much faster than he can write, and he gets stuck, or the writing just becomes completely incomprehensible, even to him. He’s fine with a keyboard. He gets fantastic scores on papers that he writes at school using his laptop. He did miserably on both the ACT and SAT essay portion (scoring around the 50% for ACT, around the 65% for SAT). I saw his SAT essay, and it was incredibly hard reading his handwriting and I’m sure that impacted his grade. It was also pretty obvious that he was running out of time, as the end of the paper was much worse than the beginning. His test scores on the regular sections were excellent, 34 ACT, 1530 SAT. We are not going to worry about these essays, though, as I assume that the essays that he will submit with his Common App and to the honors colleges will override what he got on the other two.
@compmom -
My son’s SUNY school required the HS to send over a copy of my son’s IEP. They wouldn’t accept it from me. I don’t know how I would have handled it had he not been classified since infancy for various issues.
However, he will be taking a math class over the summer at a local SUNY CC and that school said that my son just has to bring a copy of that paperwork with an email from the LD office at his home school to their office and sign some paperwork. His current school offered to email directly to the CC but they said that’s not how they work. So, the current school is emailing S his paperwork and we will print it when he gets home next week.
I can understand the SUNY needing a proper “chain of custody” so to speak. That makes sense. A parent could conceivably forge something I suppose 
Many get diagnosed late in high school or after high school and then the college or university requires a neuropsych. evaluation, or, in the case of medical problems, a doctor’s letter and records that are appropriate.
Clearly there are kids who develop issues (mental or medical health) after high school or that were missed or not documented or not accommodate etc. in high school. Some get worse. Some should have been accommodated. I do think a fresh neuropsych. evaluation (or MD documentation in cases where appropriate) can be used with many schools regardless of whether a kid had accommodations before, in high school and before.
Each state has it’s own education rules/laws. In my state, private schools do not handle disabilities but will inform the parent to enroll them in the public school. Private schools here, offer no disability services at all. Then again, private schools in my state are not required to be state certified or for that matter, hire certified teachers. This just shows how schools can very by state. It is best to read and become familiar with your states education laws/rules. How one persons college handles none IEP/405 accommodations doesn’t mean that all schools will handle it that way.
OP since they failed to give him the accommodations that CB approved, contact CB and have them void his scores and retake the test.
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Public schools will deny accommodations when a kid is doing well, no matter what the neuropsych. evaluation says. I know this for a fact from experience as well as participation in groups for parents.
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Please don’t scare people unnecessarily. This is not universally true, although I’m sure it is true some places. I know for a fact that there are students who do very well in school who also get accommodations. My son is one of them. I have several friends with kids in public schools in a couple of different states who are doing very well in school (high grades in honors and AP classes) who also have accommodations. Again, I’m not saying that it hasn’t been your experience or the experience of people you know, I’m just saying it’s not everyone’s experience. I’d hate to have someone happen to see that and give up before they’ve started when their kid needs accommodations.
@compmom Absolutely disagree with your comment that “public schools will deny accommodations when a kid is doing well, no matter what the neuropsych. evaluation says.” That has absolutely not been my experience in public schools or in college. The fact is that many students with learning issues can do well because they do get appropriate and necessary accommodations.
But this is veering off the OP’s topic.
Sorry I didn’t intend to imply universal experience and can see how it looked like I did
Re: marking location of test with the following options:
NATIONAL Test Center
INTERNATIONAL Test Center
STATE Testing on State Test Date
Individual Testing at SCHOOL
DANTES Military Base
I don’t know.
I respectfully disagree with @roycroftmom that you’re overthinking this as it definitely seems as though you’d be alerting the college that the student had accommodations during testing. Given that most colleges use a computerized algorithm to sort applications, and that in less elite schools, that algorithm makes admissions decisions (meaning a human does not read the student’s file), I can easily see how this could flag a student as having had accommodations. I have no idea if colleges pay attention to which bubble was filled in at the time of testing but the fact that the possibility exists is worrisome. I’d love to hear your follow up after you inquire about this with the college board.
Again, I meant “may” versus “will,” but in my state, among the SPED PAC members, it is said pretty often that kids get denied help as a first effort by the schools to save money, honestly, and the reason given is that kids are doing well enough in class. This is of course not universal and I “misspoke.”
The bigger worry for me would be finding the right fit for this student, not necessarily trying to maximize his test scores. I think he will likely be able to use a computer at any college he attends. I know of no college, however, where a professor will quiz him orally to supplement the written test to help him disclose more details on an exam, as his teachers apparently do now.
To come partially to @compmom’s defense, she and I have both experienced public schools denying/trying to deny accommodations because the performance is good. With effective negotiation (which is something at which I’m probably pretty effective), we got what we needed. But, the first impulse was to deny. I’m sure that is not universal and it can sometimes be overcome by effective advocacy/negotiation. My experience is now a little dated.
@roycroftmom, I believe that the fit and the accommodations may be related – it’s not either or. I have an extremely bright kid who was severely dyslexic, spoke with a bit of a speech delay, and threw in a little ADHD on the side Read very, very slowly when he entered HS. But, his raw intellectual processing power was very high. I pushed very hard to enable the testing that could show the raw processing power. Then, when it was time to choose colleges, I argued against my Ivy alma mater (which I really loved and think is a great place) because it had distribution requirements that would bite (he wouldn’t have been able to avoid courses with 400 pages of reading a week) and pushed instead for a couple of small, elite LACs, which had inconsequential distribution requirements. He told me later that he knew I had his back when I pushed against the top Ivies. He thrived and the professors quickly saw how bright he was in the small classes. But, having 99th percentile SAT/ACT scores made it possible for him to get in to a small LAC without being an athlete, legacy or URM. Without accommodations, it is unlikely he would have been admitted to any of these schools and especially the one he attended. So, I was very concerned about getting the accommodations in order to get the right fit and I think my concern was well-placed.