During high school, students take a variety of assessments. For district and state level assessments (i.e. FSA, mid-terms, final exams, or classroom assessments etc) the provision of accommodations is based on the IEP and what is allowable for each assessment.

However, beginning in 9th grade, students also take College Board examinations. These assessments include the PSAT/NMSQT, PSAT 10, SAT, SAT Subject Tests, and Advanced Placement (AP) Exams. Students cannot take these assessments with accommodations unless their request for accommodations has been approved by the College Board's Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD). Receiving school accommodations does not guarantee College Board approval of a request, however, in most cases, students are approved for the same accommodations they receive in school. It can take up to seven weeks to process an accommodations request. This means that for a 9th grader to receive accommodations on the PSAT/NMSQT exam, the approval process really should begin during the spring semester of their 8th grade year. The most efficient way to get approval from SSD is through SSD Online, which is available to educators. Families can take advantage of SSD Online by working with their school team. Collaboration between school teams and families is the best way to ensure that everything goes smoothly on test day.

For more information on accommodations for College Board examinations visit https://www.collegeboard.org/students-with-disabilities/request-accommodations

Students with disabilities who plan on taking the ACT will need to acquire accommodations approval through the Test Accessibility and Accommodations (TAA) system of the ACT company. This process is different than the procedures outlined by College Board. Students will need to first create an account, register for the ACT test, indicate the need for accommodations, and then select the type of accommodation support needed. Upon completion of registration, the student/parent/guardian will receive an email with instructions on how to work with their school to submit the accommodations request. Although, accommodations approval for the ACT cannot begin until the student has registered for the test, it will be important to register early to allow ample time for the approval process.

Once accommodations are approved, students need to take steps to ensure that accommodations are in place on test day. Communication and collaboration with the school team will be very important!

For information on accommodations for ACT testing, visit
https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/registration/accommodations.html