School revokes extra time accommodation from 504 plan
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Anonymous
How can a student who only rarely uses an accommodation for extra time for only one class, and that class happens to be three grade level aheads show their impairment substantially limits one or more major life activities? And then only needs it check answers? The vast majority of students doing math three grade level aheads would benefit from extra time to check answers or figure out what exactly a word problem is asking. The big benefit which then borders on being unfair is that you have time to plug the answer back in to verify it is the correct answer to check your work. Or if you don't know how to solve the problem and it is multiple choice you have time to plug all 4 or 5 answer choice back in to see which answer is correct. If that is occurring that is really not the purpose of extra time if no other student has time to do that. |
Anonymous
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This is BS. He has documented low processing speed and ADHD. You need to push back even if it means hiring a lawyer. This will affect him far into the future - SAT, college accommodation, etc. You need to fight and get this changed. And if it means always taking the accommodation, then tell him to always take it.
FYI my son in MCPS with ADHD didn't always use his extra time, but they didn't take it away. I think they tried in junior high school but we pushed back and they dropped it and no one in high school tried to make him drop it. |
Anonymous
Yeah, this is why informal accommodation aren't ok. You need the official accommodations to help on SATS, APs, college, etc. |
Anonymous
| My child is always the last to finish tests no dx, and is usually able to finish the test, the next day or two in class. Most of the tests/quizzes aren’t timed, but it does make sense and it is necessary to have it for timed tests. |
Anonymous
As a tutor, I can say that it’s super common for kids with ADHD, for example, to finish test quickly, but to make a lot of silly errors or forgetting to answer one part of a multi part question. These kids appear to finish quickly but need extra time to go back and recheck their answers. Sometimes they’ve made a mistake that means that they actually have to rework the whole problem again. You can be many grades ahead in math and still need this extra time to go back and check your work. Other kids don’t need to plug in the answers to make sure they’re right because they don’t make these kinds of careless errors in their work. These kinds of careless errors aren’t connected to an understanding of the material and they aren’t connected to intelligence, they’re simply a function of brain processing speed, working memory limitations, impulsivity all things that are typically an aspect of executive dysfunction and ADHD. Your questions show your ignorance of what it means to have a learning disability or a special need. What I find amusing as a tutor is how so many Neurotypical people believe that if only they had as much time they could do much better. As a tutor, I can tell you that that’s really not the case having an extra half an hour doesn’t mean that you can complete math material that’s several grades above level. Also, the answer to your question about substantial limitation is that it is possible to be substantially limited and still be a performing above grade level. For example, a kid who does well in history, but who has problems with writing. Or a kid who’s able to do math two levels ahead and who understands very well. The concepts being introduced, but who has ADHD and whose handwriting is so messy that when he goes to do the math, he often makes error errors due to things like miscopying, or dropping signs. Those kinds of mistakes are unrelated to the understanding of the math. |
Anonymous
Hot take - low processing speed and inattentive ADHD should not be accommodated with extra time. Those are vectors of intelligence and capability that are meant to be tested in timed tests, not disabilities, in the vast majority of cases. The low processing speed one especially rankles. My kid has awful motor planning skills - does that mean he deserves and accommodation to get on the football team? |
Anonymous
But they are related to the performance of math. A kid who can do the same math test in the same time with fewer errors deserves the higher grade. I truly believe that. A kid with ADHD needs to be taught to go back and check his work in the time given. |
Anonymous
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We are talking about academics not sports- plenty of corralary and no cut teams exist.
Anyway, working memory and processing speed have lower impact/weight on overall intelligence than verbal and non verbal reasoning- these are the hallmarks of intelligent behavior- your ability to reason with and without language.
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Anonymous
[b]
FFS, I wish people knew the criteria for an IEP. Eligibility for an IEP is determined by federal law under the IDEA: “ § 300.8 Child with a disability. (a) General—(1) Child with a disability means a child evaluated in accordance with §§ 300.304 through 300.311 as having an intellectual disability, a hearing impairment (including deafness), a speech or language impairment, a visual impairment (including blindness), a serious emotional disturbance (referred to in this part as “emotional disturbance”), an orthopedic impairment, autism, traumatic brain injury, an other health impairment, a specific learning disability, deaf-blindness, or multiple disabilities, and who, by reason thereof, needs special education and related services.” This definition creates a three prong test for IEP eligibility: 1. Identified disorder 2. Which has an adverse impact on education (comes from the “by reason thereof” language) 3. And needs special education and related services A kid 3 grades ahead in math may not need special education or they may need special education in a particular narrow area. An above grade level kid who has ADHD and gets Bs in class solely due to his inability to turn in assignments may actually qualify for “special instruction” in how to track, manage and turn in work and because of the IEP is then eligible for a special study hall to receive this instruction. There’s an entire program at N Bethesda MS that gives 2E kids with IEPs access to advance classes while providing appropriate special instruction. OFC, all accommodations must be “reasonable,” but “reasonable” is a term that refers to whether the requested accommodation is feasible and allows a person with disabilities to enjoy equal opportunity. It becomes unreasonable that it causes an “undue hardship“ on the employer or organization. In the context of school “equal opportunity” does not just refer to on grade level classes. If a school system offers advanced classes, grade skipping, magnet programs, etc. to non-disabled students, then those opportunities must be open to disabled students who are otherwise qualified. How fast a student can complete work does not determine whether or not they have access to advanced opportunities. If a student has a high IQ or demonstrates that they can complete advanced work with extra time, then they absolutely must be accommodated to advanced classes. “Reasonable” does not mean what PP seems to think it means – that reasonability is some kind of test of whether you think the accommodation is “unfair“ to other students. Accommodations are not measured with reference to how they impact neurotypical students. Legally, they must be decided on an individualized basis when considering the students “unmitigated“ state, i.e. their performance without consideration of medication or therapy or other factors that can help their performance (because those mitigating factors aren’t always constant). If a student has a disability which has an adverse impact on education or substantially limits a major life activity, then they’re gonna qualify for accommodations. Extra time is always a “reasonable accommodation“, because it is something that the school can administer without any “undue hardship” and it’s ubiquitous because it actually addresses a lot of different kinds of disabilities. And while, it might seem like disability accommodation should be rare, when you consider that all kinds of physical and mental disorders can adversely impact education – depression, anxiety, OCD, bipolar, several different kinds of specific learning disabilities, concussions, language, processing disorders, traumatic brain injury, spatial or visual processing issues, and a plethora of chronic physical illnesses – it should be no surprise that a few percent in each of these categories adds up to a significant number of students getting accommodation at school. |
Anonymous
Maybe the kids with higher processing speed but lower nonverbal reasoning are being unfairly discriminated against. |
Anonymous
Tl;dr. At the point when 40% of kids in elite schools have accomodations it is obvious that something has gone wrong. OP’s kid is an object lesson. |
Anonymous
Your opinion isn't law. And think about the implication of what you are saying - if your kid can finish a math test in 45 minutes with no errors and a kid with a broken arm needs 60 minutes to finish the same test with no errors, are you really saying that your kid deserves a better grade because he was able to do it faster? A grade is about mastery of the mathematical principles that have been taught, speed is not relevant to that. Attentional errors don't have to do with misunderstanding of math, they have to do with impulse and attention control, which, for an ADHD person, may not be something they can control thru mere effort but rather medication or extra time. If students with disabilities aren't accommodated in testing environments that have conditions that are irrelevant to subject mastery (speed, noise, distraction, no calculator or no computer use) then they cannot get access to higher level learning opportunities and have lower career and earning potential, which is bad for taxpayers and bad for employers, considering that many jobs don't require speed. You think it's unfair that disabled students get accommodations, but what's unfair is that the system requires students to compete on measures (like speed) that are irrelevant to showing mastery of what's been taught and irrelevant to future performance in many, many jobs. So, in fact, it's neurotypical students who have unfair advantages that they don't want to give up. |
Anonymous
Tl;dr.... meaning I'll just repeat my argument without engaging with the counterargument.... which means my argument is weak AF. |
Anonymous
To be fair, a kid with median verbal reasoning skills and 99%ile processing speed may in fact be demonstrating some other kind of disability -- language or auditory processing based perhaps? |
Anonymous
| Why handicap your kid with the label of being disabled? What are they going to do in the workplace when they are expected to be productive like everyone else? |