So-- my DD's charter school is not an "approved testing center" and it wouldn't matter if it were, since she's a virtual school student who lives fairly far from that school's offices.
To take exams through the College Board, she has been approved for accommodations by them-- which is a labyrinthine and Herculean feat all on its own when it comes to outside-the-box disabilities, quite frankly.
You get to choose from a short "menu" of accommodations, basically. In other words, if it's about a medical condition that needs management so that a medical crisis isn't triggered by the test environment...
your only legitimate choice is "breaks as needed."
Yup. The rest, you get to negotiate with the test center and proctors on your own. Every.single.time. Presumably, they have a vested interest in not incurring an 'exception' that results in an ambulance transport as much as the student and his/her family.
But the catch is that if your disabling condition is significant enough that you are homeschooling, a virtual school student, or placed OOD?
Your local school DOES NOT HAVE TO ACCEPT YOU for testing. That's right. You have to BEG for a seat.
Yes, College Board has confirmed this.
Now, our local (districted) high school testing counselor last fall for the PSAT was delightful. She immediately understood that basically, we COULD be a PITA every single day of her working life-- but that this, really, was pretty much the ONLY time we'd asked for a thing, and wow, aren't WE nice for being so understanding that a parent basically just SITS right outside the door for the test and all...
but the SAT isn't being offered at THAT local school.
Nope. We have
one choice within fifty miles of us. THIS school counselor is a whole different ball of wax. Passive-aggressive, sullen, and ever-so-slightly obstructionist.
She won't give us an answer re: the June SAT. This is the last opportunity for my DD to take the SAT this year-- her junior year, mind.
So I've been waiting for HER to contact College Board to find out what she needs to do, determine what THEY will do, all that stuff.
She calls me back a bit after SEVEN this morning... and immediately announces that while she tried to call yesterday, our land line "was busy" and so she figured (and the tone is important here) she would "wake you up this morning first thing." Well, mission accomplished-- luckily I wake up instantaneously and I'm fully operational in
seconds. So she missed her clearly intended advantage on that score.
She informed me of several jaw-dropping things during this conversation--
she has a "window" that DD can be tested during-- and we basically have no input into it. So if she opts to test DD at 3:30 AM on June 1, that's what we'll get.
She CAN refuse to seat my DD. She checked. (she was very pleased with herself about that)
She asked about my DD's PSAT scores. I said "top 50K-- we don't really know beyond that at this point in time." When pressed, she informed me (with apparent malicious glee??) that "212 is only going to be commended. Definitely NOT MNSF."
I was frankly kind of horrified by this entire line of questioning from her.
She was clearly determining whether or not my DD is a 'high-enough' achieving student to be WORTH HER TIME in accommodating her.WOW.
It's either that or something even LESS savory that just now occurs to me-- that she is looking to meet the letter of my DD's accommodations in such a stressful manner that she sabotages her scores.
Yikes.
Anyway. She then told me (when I suggested that we expect DD to test very well and probably only take the SAT this one time) that indeed, once certainly OUGHT to be plenty for this nonsense of accommodating my child.
WOW. So if my DD happened, instead of a high-flying PG kidlet, to be a student with multiple disabilities who was hoping to score well enough to make the cut at the local regional state college...
what? THAT wouldn't be "worth it" to her??
Ugh. I'm just incensed by this entire process. I hate the fact that College Board feels that they are completely above the law about this. It's not even REMOTELY possible that this is functionally compliant with ADA/ADAA given how colleges use the scores on their tests.
