How you can get accommodations on the SAT / AP exams
The entire college entrance exam process has changed in the wake of the massive cheating scandal, but I never expected how much it would affect my kid.
My daughter has an Individualized Education Plan since middle school. It has hard to get the school to agree to an IEP in the first place. The school fought me all the way. I ended up having to hire an advocate who managed to get my kid the support she required. It has been even more difficult to enforce the plan.
I didn’t expect my school district staff to actively sabotage her standardized test accommodation.
There have been times where the school just refused to provide items like e-books, class notes, audio recordings or closed captioning for videos and presentations. It has been an uphill fight that does not get any more comfortable with time.
School district staff can be friends first, but if you suggest that they are not providing the accommodations as required, they stiffen up and become hostile. They act like you are accusing them of dereliction or laziness. I have often found that they have too many kids to look after and don’t have time to focus on your student. It creates a system where only the loud parents get a response.
I am one of the loud parents. I always have been and don’t make any excuses for being that way. In elementary school, I overheard the office staff referring to me a the Momicane.
Some people would take offense to that moniker, but I wear it as a badge of honor. It shows that I fight to get what my kid needs.
Sorry to say you that just because your kid has made it to high school, that you are still going to have to keep going. What I found out this week chilled me to the core. I am sharing what I know, so you don’t have to go through it too.
TODAY: Confirm with your kid’s school that the IEP/504 plan has been submitted to the College Board.
When I went back to school night at my kid’s high school, the selected team members were all smiles. They gleefully told me that they would submit my kid’s IEP to the College Board and the ACT company, and I would not have to do anything.
I was so relieved. It would be one more thing off my plate. It would all be taken care of. And it was sort of. It was halfway done so that only partial credit will be given.
The school staffer who submitted the IEP to the College Board left two essential testing accommodations off the requested accommodations. They didn’t do it.
I thought that the school district just submitted the IEP, and it was up to the College Board to choose what accommodations the student would receive.
Boy, was I wrong!
Make sure all the accommodations have been requested with SSD
If you have a documented disability, you may be eligible for accommodations when you take the SAT and other College Board tests. Some available accommodations are extended time, extra and extended breaks, and reading and seeing accommodations (for example, large-type test books or Braille test books).
Sevices for Students with Disabilities (SSD) approves accommodations requests for these exams only:
- SAT
- SAT Subject Tests
- PSAT/NMSQT and PSAT 10
- AP Exams
*For the PSAT 8/9 Testing Accommodations, the accommodations can only be requested through the school district. Families should contact their school to learn more. If your school is giving you trouble, then you should consider skipping the 8/9 test.
If your child is asking for updates to the accommodations make sure you include the STUDENT ELIGIBILITY LETTER.
Your first step in this journey is to get a copy of your Student Eligibility letter from the College Board website ( https://www.collegeboard.org/) if your kid does not have an account set up.
Then go to the disability website for the College Board: https://accommodations.collegeboard.org/.
You can see a copy of your student's eligibility letter by login on to Big Future https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/ssd. If your child has been approved or denied accommodations, there will be a letter there.
The first thing you will see will be the letter and the status of the requests:
Services for Students with Disabilities
The College Board is committed to ensuring that students with disabilities receive appropriate testing accommodations. Check here for the latest status of your request. For information about requirements and the approval process, please visit the SSD student page.
Status of Request: Decided View your eligibility letter
The letter will tell you what accommodations have been approved for your student. It is crucial to print out a copy of the letter for your child to take with them to the exams.
Check this letter carefully against your kid’s IEP. Make sure every accommodation related to testing has been requested through the College Board.
In my kid’s case, two accommodations were NOT requested although they were on her IEP. I was lead to believe that she was not approved but that was incorrect. I can’t tell you how upset I was when I found out that my daughter did not get the correct accommodations because the school, for whatever reason, decided not to include the full testing profile.
Were the accommodations request truncated because they substituted their judgment and left them out? Or it could be that they just made a mistake and missed a couple of clicks on a website. The problem was the Eligibility Letter was never made available to me to check. Before this started, I didn’t even know what an Eligibility letter was. But you are reading this so no you know how to check.
If you find a discrepancy then you must ask the school to submit a new Eligibility Request with the IEP. Hopefully, they will submit it for you. If not you will have to go through the arduous process of submitting the request yourself: See instructions below.
Accommodation Request for the AP exam the process is the same:
https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/getting-accommodations
MY SCHOOL REFUSES TO SUBMIT THE IEP TO THE COLLEGE BOARD
Having just gone through this crazy roller coaster with my kid’s school. You have to ask for the SSD coordinator to open up a new request for accommodations. The SSD coordinator can fill out the form shown below with your signature and your child’s behalf that lists the accommodations requested. It is the fastest way to get the new accommodations approved.
The SSD web portal will track the progress of the approved or not approved accommodations.
If the school refuses, there is another way.
Submit the IEP directly to the College Board without your school’s help
It is not a complicated process. You fax the following documents to the College Board with the Student Eligibility Form, IEP/504, and Student Eligibility Letter as the cover sheet to:
Call in three days after sending to confirm receipt: 212–713–8333
Fax To: 866–360–0114
Mail To:
College Board SSD Program
P.O. Box 7504
London, KY
40742–7504
- Student Eligibility Letter, if there is a previous request for accommodations if this is the first request then there will not be a letter and you will have to make your own cover letter.
- A full copy of the student’s latest IEP or 504 plan
- A filled out copy of the Student Eligibility Form. This form is where you request the specific changes. https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/ssd/pdf/2019-sat-ssd-eligibility-form.pdf
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE FOR THE COLLEGE BOARD TO APPROVE THE ACCOMMODATIONS REQUEST?
Here is the bad news. When parents submit the accommodations request directly to the College Board it takes up to 7 weeks to render a decision. I know it seems like forever! But since the school district won’t budge you don’t have a choice.
With this long approval time, it is going to make a big difference in the test date you choose with your kid for the SAT. For the AP exams, there are only May test administrations
Be careful of Deadlines to Request Accommodations before the test!
Before registering for a test date make sure you still have time to get your accommodation requests in. The deadlines are found here:
For example:
Advanced Placement Program® (AP®)
AP Test administration: May 3–7, 10–14, 2021
Accommodation Deadline Request: January 15, 2021
SAT and SAT Subject Tests
SAT Test Administration Date: May 8, 2021
SAT Accommodations Deadline Request: March 19, 2021
SAT and SAT Subject Tests
SAT Test Administration Date: June 5, 2021
SAT Accommodations Deadline Request: April 16, 2021
I know this is overwhelming but I promise with a little persistence and luck you can make sure your kid gets all the accommodations they need.
Don’t forget about the ACT too that is a special accommodation process and a different organization.
