Accommodations

The purpose of IEP accommodations is to remove barriers to a student's success in appropriately selected general education courses.  An appropriately selected course is one for which a student has the entry level thinking skills and language skills, but may not have all the performance skills necessary to complete the course successfully.

Students with accommodations written in their IEP are encouraged by teachers to use them in their courses.  Despite this encouragement, students occasionally choose not to take advantage of all their accommodations.  This may adversely affect their academic success in some courses.  Please encourage your child to use IEP accommodations and contact their case manager if there are questions about how to effectively use these accommodations. 

Many special education students have testing accommodations written into their IEP.  These accommodations may be for extended time to take a test or for a test to be read aloud to the student.  These accommodations may require arrangement of a separate classroom or for another teacher to proctor the exam.  Students are directed to give their general education and case manager at least one day notice before a test so that appropriate arrangements may be made.  When students come to the Tutorial room to take a test, they are to check in with a special education teacher prior to beginning.

Many general education teachers will make testing accommodations, especially for extended time, in their own classrooms.  This is often preferable to students taking their tests in the Tutorial room, because the teacher is available to answer any questions students may have about the test.  General education teachers providing testing accommodations in their classroom are in compliance with the IEP.

A great deal of time is necessary to coordinate classrooms, teachers, tests, and test readers during the final exam period.  In order to meet the requirements of administering many different exams to students who are eligible for testing accommodations within the resource room, students will be directed two weeks prior to final exams to sign up for a time in the Tutorial room to take each of their exams.