We have just applied for accommodations for my son for when he takes the SAT in a few months. I found a very good post here from another mom who described how challenging this process is, and she gave some good tips on what the accommodations should include. I'd love to hear from anyone whose son/daughter has taken the SAT recently with accommodations for T1D. My son is in 7th grade and will be taking the SAT as part of the Duke TIP program. This is a big honor and understandably a big deal for a 7th grader.
These are my specific questions:
1) Will he be in a room by himself (with the person overseeing the test)?
2) Will he be allowed to have his PDM at his seat or would the person overseeing his test hold onto it. (I feel strongly that he needs to have his PDM and glucose in the room with him, if they insist it can't be at his desk).
3) If his pod fails during testing, would I be allowed to help him put on another one? I obviously plan to be close by but would a 12 year old be allowed to interact with a parent for this purpose?
4) His 504 plan allows for extra time to be given for testing if his BG is out of range. I presume that would translate over to the SAT?
We applied for accommodations for the SAT. They have a separate room for those getting accommodations. If you go to the wrong room, your accommodations will not be honored. They do not have to give you the same accommodations you are entitled to under your 504 Plan. And they did not. They will grant basic diabetic accommodations -- not so good with other disabilities. She was entitled to test blood sugar and eat Lifesavers if low, reschedule the test if very high. She was entitled to stop the test if low, treat and continue when her blood sugar comes back up then continue, but with no extra time. They did not give her extra time for her ADD and math disability (dyscalculia). Under the 504 Plan, they give her extra time for math, which is the only thing she needs it for. A lot of the time she does not need extra time. She felt she did need the extra time for Math during the SATs but they did not give it to her. She has been an honor student all through school. Her SAT score does not reflect this as a result. She told me that many students with very serious learning disabilities were denied accommodations. Thanks to the many diabetes advocates and the ADA, they will not deny the right to test, eating food if low (and stopping test and timing until she gets back) and rescheduling if very high. However, you must go through the appropriate channels in advance.
