Does peer pressure keep your child from using their accommodations?
bluemagic, my ds is very aware of peers when he uses his accommodations - that's been one of the largest obstacles we've faced over the years in getting him to actually use them. For our ds the biggest issue is opening up his computer in class for writing - he has always felt like it puts a big "HELLO I"M DIFFERENT AND WIERD" sign on his nose (or something similar lol). It took almost a full year in elementary school for him to get up enough guts to open his laptop in class - and he was literally shaking on the day he actually did it.
Guess what happened? Nobody cared. Truly. A few other students took one look, said it was cool, and that was it. What we've found is that the *idea* of how the accommodations will be perceived by other students is much scarier than the reality, and not only for the laptop in the classroom.
Leaving the room would be for the accommodation that he do all in-class writing assignments on a computer. The way this school implements this is having the student do the assignment in the resource room.
I would argue this is *totally* not "least restrictive environment" and I would also argue that it is counter to what you are aiming to achieve - you not only want your ds to be able to show his full knowledge, but another piece of the overall goal of accommodations is for our children to become *independent* - going to another room to use a computer that doesn't move does not promote independence, and it is also going to interfere with classwork - I can guarantee that. No matter what your school staff says - I'll send you some examples if you need them! He needs a laptop or other portable computer that he can take to each class and use in the classroom - no matter where he is sitting.
I would really fight this accommodation set-up - it really *does* make your ds stand out. With a laptop or tablet he would be fully participating in class, and that's the goal.
The teachers have already said they won't allow him to take these assessments early because of cheating issues. He could start it 30 minutes before the rest of the class where he has not chance to tell anyone the writing prompts or test questions.
I would think starting early just in general wouldn't work in a high school setting where kids change classes. I suppose my ds' school is lax/lame/whatever… but most of his teachers let him finish his in-class assignments/quizzes/etc *on his laptop* at home if he needs extra time, and he sends them in the next day. He's an honest kid, and he hasn't attempted to cheat when he's taken the extra time. On state testing, the students who have accommodations are usually all in a separate room (together), and taking extra time doesn't really stand out at all, unless a student has to miss their regular class to continue testing… but even that isn't all that glaringly obvious, the student simply misses class.
One note - I don't think a student should miss lunch to get their extra time in for test-taking - that seems counter-productive. Who can do their best (or even concentrate at all) when they are hungry? Making a student take a test during lunch is more like punishment than an accommodation.
polarbear
eta - bluemagic, I don't know if this applies to your ds or not, but the reason my ds equates using his accommodations with standing out as "different" is related to how he views having a disability - he sees that as being very "different" from his friends and peers. It's an odd catch-22 type situation - my ds is very comfortable with who he is and if you ask him, he would *not* want to start his life over and not have dysgraphia/etc - he feels that having the experience of living with an LD has made him who he is, and he likes who he is. Yet he still doesn't want other kids his age that he's hanging out with in school to realize he has a disability. Yet everyone of them knows he has an issue with handwriting. It's complicated and really a bit twisted, and we (and the teachers that care, and some of the teachers that don't care lol) invest a lot of time in helping him realize - letting other people know you're different is ok, everyone has "something" that is different about them (this used to bug me when his middle school teachers started emphasizing it - because I felt like they were minimizing the impact of his own personal LDs… but over time I've realized - it's true. Everyone *does* have something that they have to deal with, work through, whatever. DS' challenge just happens to be dysgraphia, and that's who he is. The accommodations are a part of it, the things that help you be successful - not because they give you an edge, but because they give you a voice. It's a process - we've been working on it since ds was first diagnosed, and he still has a few classes this year that he's just completely stressed out about using his accommodations in so he hasn't done it yet. It's like my morning mantra everyday - repeated, in fact, just this morning "So DS, are you going to open up your laptop in ____ today?"
