Marty: Our child has an IEP with accommodations for testing and classwork. Is she required to take the same tests as the regular students? The teachers and principal keep stating that they have to go by the same standards which is totally understood. However, they do not want to take the time to make a different test she can easily understand with the same content. Also, when she fails a test, the teacher moves on to the next skill without trying to make sure she understands what she missed. She does have an inclusion teacher but her time has been cut this year due to her having an excess amount of inclusion students. An unqualified parapro has been hired to fill in when the inclusion teacher is not there. This is what I call a child getting left behind. What happened to the NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND! We work with our child two hours every day after school just trying to catch her up. She has 7 or 8 tests a week in first grade. This includes math, reading, and ELA. This is becoming very stressful and we are considering homeschooling.
Marty, Unless your child has a severe cognitive disability, she needs to learn the same material as other students in her grade.
Her IEP must include info about her present levels of academic achievement and functional performance and the impact of her disability on her ability to progress in the general ed curriculum. Her IEP goals must be aligned with the content standards for children in her grade, unless she has a significant cognitive disability.
In Nov 2015, the U.S. Dept of Ed published new guidance on school responsibilities for teaching children with disabilities. These requirements are In “IEP Goals Must Be Aligned with Grade Level State Academic Content Standards,” Download a copy here: http://www.wrightslaw.com/law/osers/fape.acad.content.close.gap.1117.2015.pdf
Your post has several different questions, but I’m going to limit my response to the question in the header about accommodations for testing. I wonder whether you are confusing accommodations and modifications. They really mean two very different things. Double -check your daughter’s IEP to see if it includes accommodations for testing. In that case, she would probably be expected to take the same tests as nondisabled students but would be accommodated. That is, she might be provided additional time, etc. to complete THE SAME TEST as everyone else. If your daughter’s IEP provides for modifications for tests, that is a different story. Testing modifications usually mean that a student is NOT EVALUATED WITH THE SAME TEST or on same concepts/information as her nondisabled peers.