Hi! My 10th grader has accommodations approved by the college board for 100% extra time and screen reader. I wanted to enroll her in an SAT prep class but then realized that most of the classes start by taking practice tests. These test during the class would not allow for these accommodations. Some will allow her to come early or take the practice test at home the night before but don't have the screen read function. Does anyone know of a test prep class that specializes in working with students who have approved accommodations? We are in PA the suburbs of Philadelphia. Would love any guidance anyone can offer. Also wondering between the ACT and SAT what has been your experience with your child? Is one proven better for certain learning disabilities or strengths? Thank you.

I'll check into how and when accommodations are being implemented. I hear you that filing a State complaint can change things with the school IEP team.

Thank you both. I'm putting together my reeval request and submitting this week to get the ball rolling.

Personally, I feel that not averaging this test is isn't a 'reasonable accommodation'. Given it's the end of the school year & there is limited opportunity to make this right, this might be what to ask for. I do feel you should ask for something. What might be better would be for your child to go over the test with the teacher where the teacher allows her provide a verbal response for the questions she didn't answer 100% correctly. Also, if classmates got 5 minute with open notes, IMO, your child should have gotten 10 minutes. You might want to request an IEP meeting so 'extra time' can be clarified as to what is needed. Maybe also clarify what happens if teachers use timers or do other things contrary to what's in the IEP (if the class needs a timer, your child should be testing in another room) you might want to include that the test will not count toward the final grade unless it brings her average up. I've not seen students get more than 2X time but there are exceptions to everything. If you (or your daughter) don't ask, the answer is 'no'. Definitely say something and do it in writing tso there is a paper trail.

Hello, My daughter's IEP states that she gets 100% extra time for tests and more can be considered if needed. It also says no use of timers and to answer her questions directly. She is in 10th grade and advocates fairly well for herself. Her last chemistry test the teacher told her that she would give the class the full period to do the test however since she felt the test should only take 30 min she would only allow my daughter to take 60 min. My daughter tried to advocate and the teacher said 30 + 30 is 60. My daughter asked how long the class was and the teacher (instead of answering her directly) told her to look at board where the times of the classes were written. This completely intimidated and added to my daughter's anxiety about the test. When test day came, there was a timer on the smart board. Additional she told the class that they could use notes for the last 5 min. My daughter felt completely uncomfortable and rushed. She was so worried because she had to tell tbe teacher when her last 5 min were (she should not have been limited to 5 min either). With the intimidation, time limit and timer visible through the test, my daughter rushed and didn't check her work. The 5 min to use her notes went so fast she couldn't find anything. It was the lowest grade she got on a test and it brought her average down a point. It is the last week of school should I write a note to the teacher to have the test not count in any way that would negatively affect her grade? Retaking the test would cause too much anxiety for my daughter.

This is the definition of autism from IDEA: (i) Autism means a developmental disability significantly affecting verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age three, that adversely affects a child’s educational performance. Other characteristics often associated with autism are engagement in repetitive activities and stereotyped movements, resistance to environmental change or change in daily routines, and unusual responses to sensory experiences. (ii) Autism does not apply if a child’s educational performance is adversely affected primarily because the child has an emotional disturbance, as defined in paragraph (c)(4) of this section. (iii) A child who manifests the characteristics of autism after age three could be identified as having autism if the criteria in paragraph (c)(1)(i) of this section are satisfied. This is section (c) (4) mentioned ^: (4) (i) Emotional disturbance means a condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child’s educational performance: (A) An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors. (B) An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers. (C) Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances. (D) A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression. (E) A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems. (ii) Emotional disturbance includes schizophrenia. The term does not apply to children who are socially maladjusted, unless it is determined that they have an emotional disturbance under paragraph (c)(4)(i) of this section. I find this confusing. From what I've seen with Aspergers type of autism is that emotional issues versus are hard to differentiate which is why autistics are sometimes labeled ED by schools. If 'autism' is a health factor, then ASD is the right box to have checked. Supplemental versus itinerant has to do with staffing. This is from Chapter 14 of the school code: Itinerant (20% or Less) Supplemental (Less Than 80% but More Than 20%) Full-Time (80% or More) Learning Support 50 20 12 Life Skills Support 20 20 12 (Grades K-6) 15 (Grades 7-12) Emotional Support 50 20 12 Deaf And Hearing Impaired Support 50 15 8 Blind And Visually Impaired Support 50 15 12 Speech And Language Support 65 8 Physical Support 50 15 12 Autistic Support 12 8 8 Multiple Disabilities Support 12 8 8 If the student is supplemental, max caseload is 8 - not 12. They should be looking at how much time as a percentage of the school day he's getting special ed services and not the name of the program. If this isn't accurate on the IEP, you could file a state complaint. (You can see this defined her on page 58: https://www.pattan.net/CMSPages/GetAmazonFile.aspx?path=~\pattan\media\forms\files\interactive-annotated-iep.pdf&hash=c0ea2b719d21a38a5c12f35787364505e1915c0b3618e03dec3aae2355fa263a&ext=.pdf.) Note that the annotation says "typical school day". My district has paraprofessionals who have RBT training so this would look the same as far as "restrictive" goes - it's just a 1:1 with different training than other aides (they also make more given the added training). In your shoes, I'd ask that his 1:1 aide have RBT training given your outside eval said he needed an RBT. Emotional support might be the right placement if 'upset' is the reason he needs support & the ES teacher has appropriate training - I'd still want the ASD box checked on the IEP. I wouldn't fault them for using an AS room for a student in the evaluation process if that's where the person who helped was located. So long as a student is in the process of being identified, they get special ed protections and students with IEPs can be suspended. It's really when you get to 10 days that they look at manifestations of a disability because suspensions of 10+ days are a placement change where you need the IEP team to weigh in. What does the autistic support room have that the emotional support room doesn't being you want AS and not ES to be the room where he gets services? If I knew why you wanted this, I think I could help by providing an argument that's specific to the issue you see. I'm aware of a school where one room had both AS & ES support. The issue was that when there was a ES support student acting out & trying to calm down, the autistic student found this too triggering/distracting where they couldn't calm down. There are other things in your post that you might want to file complaints with PDE on: We were told they couldn’t evaluate until full-day 1st grade despite autism being flagged by his therapist. When we did get an eval, they initially didn’t test for autism. I hope I covered everything - you had a lot of questions/comments.