Sigh . . .

I am beginning to understand the frustration that parents of children with disabilities have.  There is a lot of red tape in the world. 

Craig took the ACT in February.  I purposely signed him up for the optional writing exam because I was fairly sure that he needed more time when taking written exams.   Filling in the bubbles is tedious, but having watched him write, I saw the mental concentration and physical effort he exerted to control the pencil and suspected his hand gets tired after an hour or so of testing and knew he probably couldn't complete an essay test in the alloted time.  This would explain why he does well all semester, but bombs his final exams.  His ACT results indicate that I am right.

Craig scored very high on the reading and math portions.  He was average on the science portion.  He told me he had run out of time.  He did quite poorly on the English section, an area I would have expected him to excel.  We won't discuss the writing portion.

After we got the results I sat him down for a difficult conversation.  His abilities are not in question, but I had to frame what I had to say in a way that it would not come across as a criticism of his performance and in a way that he would agree to some accommodations.  I suggested to him that he needed more time when taking standardized tests and requested permission to discuss it with his guidance counselor.  He agreed.  I also suggested that while he may not need extra time on a day-to-day basis in school, it may be helpful during finals.  He denied that time was a problem there, which is what I expected.  He can swallow being treated differently when he can be anonymous while doing it, but everyone knows him at school and you can't get more time on the final without others in the class knowing about it. 

I called his guidance counselor and explained the problem.  She has known Craig since second grade.  Her son has been Craig's best friend since Kindergarten.  She was ready and willing to help.  Unfortunately the College Board is quite particular about giving accommodations during testing.  Naturally they are interested in protecting the integrity of the test; however they are a bit unreasonable.  First they wanted Craig to undergo psychological testing.  His guidance counselor explained multiple times that this is a physical problem.  He does not have learning disabilities and he is not ADD.  Next they needed a detailed letter from his doctor explaining his condition and the particulars of how it affects him.  God bless Vicki, the nurse for his neurologist at the Ataxia Center, who dropped everything to get this done twice, because the first letter wasn't detailed enough for the College Board.  Next the school has to prove that these accommodations have been in place at school for 4 months and that the student uses them.  There are multiple problems here.  One, we didn't know for sure that he needed them.  Two, he doesn't need them on a day-to-day basis.  Three, the kid has pride and would never admit to needing them, hence tying my hands.  (He turns 18 in September.  Everything, and I mean everything, will get harder then because legally I won't be able to advocate for him.)  Craig's guidance counselor sent out an email to his teachers looking for anything that could help.  His English teacher responded that while Craig finishes his work/tests in the alloted time, it takes him 30% longer than the other students to do it.  We are praying that this will be good enough and we're praying for a miracle, just in case.

We've already missed the deadline for applying for accommodations for the AP exam in May.  They are going to petition it, but if they aren't successful it is unlikely he will pass it.  It is a 3 1/2 hour exam including several (3, I think) essays.  They can't apply for accommodations for the ACT until he registers to take the test so we're going to see what the SAT says, then try the ACT.  Craig's guidance counselor is furious and frustrated.  She said the school had to send documentation for a blind student explaining why he needed to take the test in braille.  Stupid!  It's going to be a long road, I think.  Sigh . . .