When a child with special needs reaches high school age, it’s very important for the parents to make sure that accommodations that they need are going to be applied for their PSATs and SATs. It’s not an automatic right that whatever is in your 504 Plan or in your IEP is going to be applied to SATs or PSATs, but many of those services should and will be provided.For example, if your child needs extra time on tests, he should be able to get extra time on his PSATs and SATS. If he needs a scribe or he needs a reader or any of the other kinds of accommodations that they give for testing, he may want that and need that for his PSATs and SATs, so it gives an accurate reflection of his capabilities.
Schools are supposed to take care of most of that for you, through your child test study team or through your Section 504 coordinator. Occasionally they forget, so it’s important for parents to start asking these questions a year before the SATs or PSATs are going to be sat because there are some time issues involved for the SAT people to actually agree to the accommodations.
Parents can actually contact those services themselves but should push the schools to do it. As long as you push far enough in advance, there shouldn’t be a problem. If you have any questions about it, you should contact an advocate or an attorney who knows the law in this area and can guide you through, to make sure that whatever accommodations are needed are actually going to be provided.
The law firm of Mattleman, Weinroth & Miller, P.C., is composed of experienced education attorneys throughout the states of New Jersey and Delaware. Please contact the office for a free initial consultation and get any questions answered regarding your specific case.