If you are a student or you have a student that will be requesting accommodations on either the SAT or ACT, it is important to be aware of the deadlines for submitting your documentation.  College Board (SAT) requires that disability documentation (last evaluation) be completed within 5 year of the accommodations request.  ACT requires that the documentation be completed with 3 years of the request for accommodations.   SAT documentation deadlines are listed below.  ACT requires you send in your documentation along with the application for accommodations by the postmark date for regular registration for the test date you are requesting.  There is not a separate date for eligibility documentation to be submitted.

SAT Documentation Deadlines:

September 17 for November 6 test date

October 15 for December 4 test date

December 3 for January 22 test date

This is a great article. What a great way to show the different ways people learn.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-nh_dyslexia_0417gd.ART.State.Edition1.4cd07db.html

It’s 8PM on Wednesday night and your child has just told you, he’s lost the study guide for the test he has to take tomorrow. Both of you are at your wits end! You are frustrated that your disorganized child has lost yet another important assignment for school and your son is simply frustrated with school thinking he is just dumb. You know your child is smart, he just can’t seem to get himself organized. This may be your first indicator that he could have a learning disability.

Now that you’ve decided there could potentially be a problem, what do you do next? Your first call should be to your pediatrician for a referral to a diagnostician for educational testing.

Why hire a private diagnostician? First thing, you have more control over when and how in depth the testing will be. You, as a parent, will play a more significant role in the pretesting process. An independent evaluator may be able to dedicate more time to get to know your child and may be more creative in the ways in which they test your child.

“I recently was testing a very bright 5-year-old who could only pay attention for 10 minutes at a time,” Laura Solomon, a special-education consultant, recently told me. “So we did 10 minutes of testing and five minutes of play. It took us three mornings to finish the tests.”

Dr. Solomon, who has been assessing children for 27 years, said “testing is an art and a science.”

Using a private evaluator often gives you a more in-depth report with suggestions and explanations to their findings, as well as, possible classroom observations to better evaluate your child.

Once you have a report and suggestions for accommodations, you should submit a copy of the report to your school. Your school should accept this report and work to make the necessary accommodations for your student. If you run into problems with your school accepting your evaluation, you have the right to request a hearing with your school board of education, and should bring your attorney along with you for this hearing.

When everything is said and done, this is your child we’re talking about. You have to be his best advocate and insist that he receive the best education in the least restrictive environment possible.

Welcome to the Diagnostic Learning Blog page!! We are excited you are here. Our goal for this page is to share valuable information regarding anything and everything that deals with learning disabilities. We also hope that if you have any experiences or insight that you may be willing to share those with us as well! Check back over the next few days as the entries begin coming in! Have a great day and please feel free to call us if you have any questions!!

Thanks
Laurie