In addition, he doesn't think it's fair that he would get extra time, and get to keyboard when other kids (who also want the time and keyboard) are not allowed. He would never do that to his friends, even if we explain why he should.
This is something that may change as he matures and also as the workload gets heavier at school.
The accommodations he doesn't use:
- extra time. In fact, he is often the first one finished. When his reading teacher told me this at the beginning of the year, we each coached my son to take all the time given (not extra time) to make sure he was doing his best work. That did make a difference in his performance. Does he need the extended time on his 504? Apparently not at this point, but thanks to this thread, I realize we don't know whether he'll need it in the future.
If the school urges you to drop the extended time, in addition to the testing request I mentioned above, you can mention this as a data point - his performance improved when he took the extra time (even though it wasn't "extra" extra time). If the school responds with "all students would improve their scores if given extra time" respond "but not all students have a disability, this is not an issue of asking for extra time, it's an issue of giving a child with a disability a fair and equitable amount of time due to the disability."
-- keyboarding all assignments and notes. Other kids are required to make class notes in composition notebooks. He won't keyboard when the other kids aren't allowed, even though he can't read his handwriting about half the time.
Notetaking is something our ds still has issues with, and it's something we're still working with and urging our ds to use his accommodations for. While he may be coasting through school now able to use handwriting for his note taking, it's going to catch up with your ds at some point - because eventually the purpose of taking notes is to be able to *read* them and use them to study from or write a report from. In high school eventually one teacher somewhere (if not quite a few teachers) are most likely going to require that he turn notes in to be graded, and legibility will count then.
I know it's tough to keyboard when other kids aren't. Our ds struggled with not wanting to because the other kids weren't keyboarding for several years. Middle school was ok for the most part because, like your ds' school, the students *all* keyboarded essays etc. Then when ds went to high school - very few students were using laptops etc in class plus he was surrounded by kids he didn't know - all of which made him retreat into that kid who didn't want to keyboard again. However... he had also matured into a student who wanted to keep up and do well, and by ninth grade he was really starting to understand what it meant to have dysgraphia, how it impacted him, etc... so there was a bit of a coming together of understanding on his part that changed his attitude about using the keyboard in class when no one else did, and he's gotten used to it and doesn't think twice about it anymore.
-- the teacher is supposed to check with him to make sure he understands the assignment or test questions. This is on the 504, but left over from elementary school. I insisted on it because he often made math mistakes when he skipped over words in word problems. He doesn't use this, and would be mortified if a teacher checked his comprehension (and in fact, his reading comprehension is particularly high).
For state/standardized testing accommodations to be included you have to have proof that there is a need, and according to policy the same accommodations have to be *given* in class. This is technically different than being "used" in class. My ds has an extended time accommodation for all classroom and state testing as part of his 504 plan, which means he can use extended time on tests in the classroom when he needs to. He doesn't have to use it every time, and in fact, he rarely needs it in the classroom
I would let this accommodation drop, unless you feel he still needs it.
Another problem with the way my son's school uses the extra time for state testing is that my son would have to go into a different room for testing, which he would be too embarrassed to do. All his friends would ask why he didn't take the test.. and then he'd say he did in a different room. I can see why that's uncomfortable for him.
Do you know he'd be too uncomfortable with it? Has he tried it? My ds had to go into a different room in elementary school, but the other kids never made a big deal about it. DS just told them it's because he needs extra time and use of a laptop to write, which the other kids accepted because they knew he used the laptop in class. In middle school ds was given the choice of going to a separate room or staying with his class in the regular room and he sometimes chose the regular room, other times chose the separate room because it was quiet and had less distractions. Eventually he preferred going to the quiet room over staying with classmates. When he did stay with classmates, he went to another room to use his extended time. Anyway, it's possible if you asked your ds to give it a try one time, he'd find it's not as off-putting as he may think it will be.
I didn't mean to imply he had to keyboard multiple choice answers, although they are computerized. I was talking about writing prompts. And I was told that unless he always answers ALL writing prompts on the computer, he can't make an exception and keyboard the prompts during state tests.
By writing prompts I am guessing you mean essay type answers, which are a paragraph or longer. To be honest, I don't think this is an unreasonable expectation - if he's able to use handwriting to produce essays from writing prompts that meet grade-level expectations within the same amount of time as other students, that don't show impact from his disability (excessive spelling/grammar errors due to dysgraphia etc) and that *do* show the full extent of his knowledge (i.e., there is no discernable difference between his handwritten output, his typing output or his verbal output using the same type of question/prompt), then he doesn't need the accommodation for handwriting. HOWEVER... your ds seems to need the accommodation from what you've said, he's just not using it in all circumstances where he *does* need to use it. I'd turn this one around on the school and request that his teachers prompt him to use his keyboard for all writing prompts. We had to do this for a year with our ds in order to get him to be willing to take out his laptop when peers weren't using keyboarding. DS didn't like it at first, but it also was a bit of a relief to him to have the teacher tell him to use it - that felt less like he was doing something the other kids didn't "get" to do. And by the time he hit upper middle school and high school and had more complicated writing assignments being assigned, he was willing to use his keyboard and uses it now with not even thinking about it - which is important, because at this point, the work would be way too much without it.
I guess my strategy at our 504 meeting will be to tell them unless they have data to proof he no longer needs the accommodations, we'll keep them!
Great strategy! Although you can possibly drop the one mentioned above about teacher-check-in... so that gives you a small amount of "give" which is always nice to have something so that it doesn't appear you're just insisting on accommodations willy-nilly having given them any thought
Another reason to keep the 504 that came to mind after I replied yesterday: in high school, teachers will be expecting your ds to advocate for himself. He will also be required to attend his 504 team meetings (at least that's what happens here), and he'll be the person answering the questions and telling the staff what he does and doesn't need included in it. Middle school isn't just a time for you to be sure the 504 is in order for high school, it's also the time where you need to start preparing your ds to eventually advocate for himself, and working now to help him understand where he does and doesn't need his accommodations is a big part of that. Once he's in high school, having the 504 will give him a backbone of support when he needs to advocate with a teacher who's not understanding why he needs an accommodation.
Hope that makes sense!
polarbear
