I'm just thinking about the future and I'm curious if anyone might have some tips.
My first tip: expect things to be different by the time your ds is in high school, and recognize that there's no way to predict *how* they'll be different. We started thinking about what to do about high stakes testing accommodations when my ds was around 10 years old, so we planned as best we could to cover our bases to be sure he'd be eligible for accommodations. Some things did change, but it worked out a-ok. The first thing I'd do, in your situation, is to ask the neuropsych who made the recommendation for accommodations for high stakes testing what you should be doing now to be sure he will have his best chance at qualifying.
We are opting out of our state test for third graders and could do so for future grades too.
Why are you opting out of state testing? I'd seriously consider taking the state testing (with accommodations if he has them in place). In most states there's really no downside to taking the testing other than the time spent taking the test - scores go on a child's record, but unless you're worried that they will be low and keep him out of a program that you'd like to be in, I wouldn't worry about the scores. The important thing is having that record of having tested with accommodations.
He gets accommodations at school but what type of record should we establish so he gets accommodations when he takes the SAT and ACT?
Is he in a public school? If so, does he have a 504 or IEP that states he has accommodations? If it's not a public school, you can have an administrator from the school generate a letter stating the accommodations he uses in class and for testing. If he's in public school, routinely using accommodations, and *doesn't* have a 504, I'd request a 504 hearing.
Also, while we'd probably submit it all, I'm curious if medical condition based accommodations requests are treated differently (maybe more likely to be approved?) than those from a neuropsych evaluation.
There is specific advice at the College Board website re what documentation is required. Our ds has both medical record and neuropsych evals as proof of his disability. Rather than overthink what to send in, I sent it all in.
It's easy to worry about qualifying when you read much online, but fwiw, students who have disabilities at least sometimes do get approved for accommodations on the first request - our ds did. What we did, whether it made any difference or not, was to send in all the documentation we had from every eval he'd ever had (at school and private), which included proof of accommodations used from 4th grade through high school, as well as a brief cover letter summarizing ds' challenge and how it would impact testing (this letter was based on what was stated as needed at the CB website), and a summary list of the evals we were sending.
One thing that did happen to us, however, is that our high school refused to make the accommodations request for our ds (which is what the College Board wants to happen)... so we had to file independently of the school (which is still allowed by the College Board... ACT has recently changed to not allow this except for home school students).
Best wishes,
polarbear
