Val this is going to be even more upsetting. This state had at the time a yearly writing assessment given by the state. So this school district decided if one writing assessment was good, multiple assessments all year round was better. This was one of the district prompts. He had 45 minutes to write it and 15 minutes to pre write. And the teachers used it as a test grade. And the he handed in a blank page at the end of the hour. Not because he couldn't write competently. He could write things that would get an A in a college class at that age. I constantly got emails that basically said "um, your son, wow!" This was a major grade and he got a zero.
At that point he did not have a 504 for accommodations. But we did work on it at home just working through the problem of being stuck, what can you do to reframe the prompt. Conferenced with the teacher. And after a week of histerics I think he wrote something in school finally. I told him even arguing the opposite is better than turning in nothing--My school isn't the best and listing all the facts would be better than nothing. He didn't get credit but he had to work through this. I think the teacher dropped everyone's lowest grade and that assessment was his.
This assessment was used in the discussion when we got him 504 eligible and wrote a plan for him.
