The following information is provided to parents and students who qualify for Special Education or Section 504. It is meant to help provide information on the process of applying for accommodations through either ACT or College Board (SAT, AP and PSAT/NMSQT). If you think your child will need accommodations on any test offered by these entities, please be sure to read through the information carefully and take note of NISD campus deadlines that must be adhered to in order for us to submit requests by ACT and College Board deadlines.
In order to use accommodations on ACT or College Board tests, accommodations must be approved by the ACT's or College Board's Department of Services for Students with Disabilities. With limited exceptions, once approved for accommodations, students remain approved and do not have to reapply when they register for future ACT or College Board tests. This includes the ACT, SAT, AP and PSAT/NMSQT programs.
Note that the use of accommodations in school, or on an Individual Education Program (IEP) or 504 Plan does not automatically qualify a student for accommodations on ACT or College Board tests. Students are required to apply separately for ACT testing and/or College Board testing accommodations.
Not all students with disabilities require accommodations. Some accommodations received by students in school are not necessary for the purposes of participating in ACT or College Board tests. To ensure that ACT or College Board provides the right accommodations, a student's documentation must meet their criteria.
To be eligible for accommodations on ACT, a student must have a documented disability. The disability documentation must meet the criteria of ACT. If you need to request test accommodations due to a current professionally diagnosed and documented disability, before completing the registration application, check with: Services for Students with Disabilities for ACT at (319) 337-1332.
ACT will email the family a Parent Consent form once the student has registered for the exam. A sample form can be seen at: Consent to Release Information
After downloading the information from ACT, please complete the Parent Consent form. This form will need to be turned in to your campus representative by the Campus Deadline listed below.
Special Education students: contact your campus diagnostician.
Section 504 students: contact your campus Student Support Facilitator (SSF)
Visit the Accommodations section of the ACT website for more information.
Due Dates to provide information to campuses for testing that occurs on campus are listed below (NO application will be submitted if information is provided after the campus due date). Do NOT wait until the last day of a campus deadline to contact your campus representative.
NISD staff provide authorized accommodations for the ACT test (special testing). Students are strongly encouraged NOT to register for special testing in December, March and June as there is likely not staff available to administer tests to students since the district is on break during these months.
