FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

ABOUT THE TRANSITION FROM HIGH SCHOOL TO COLLEGE:

Who is responsible for identifying and documenting need?

College students, unlike high school students, are responsible for self-identification and for obtaining documentation from a professional qualified to assess their particular disability; cost of the evaluation must be assumed by the student, not the institution.

Who is responsible for initiating service delivery?

College students, unlike high school students, are responsible for notifying the Disabilities Office Staff of their disability and of their need for accommodations. Accommodations (not special education) are provided on a semester-by-semester basis in order for students with disabilities to have equal access to the institution’s programs and activities.

What about advocacy?

College students, unlike high school students, must be able to communicate what their disability is, their strengths and weaknesses, how the disability impacts and functionally limits major life activities, and identify any requested accommodations.

ABOUT BOARD OF REGENTS CRITERIA:

Why did the Georgia Board of Regents (BOR) establish these rather stringent criteria? Are they trying to keep students with learning disabilities from participating at the college and university level?

They were established by the BOR in 1990 to help institutions balance the need of academic institutions to ensure academic standards and the rights of individuals with disabilities to appropriate accommodations. This is good for students with disabilities because it helps legitimize those who are identified by these criteria and assures faculty that accommodations are not being passed out wholesale. In the long run, preservation of academic standards adds to the value of everyone’s degree.

Why do I (or my son or daughter) need a new evaluation? I have been tested several times before.

The 3-Year Rule is accepted practice. Institutions need to know current levels of functioning to determine which accommodations are appropriate. In general, our policy recognizes that after a student is 18 years old, there is usually no need to test if the documentation meets criteria, because cognitive growth is assumed to have leveled off. BUT, institutions have the right to ask for current levels of functioning and may find it necessary in some cases.

Why do you need more tests of cognitive processing?

This is a big complaint from psychologists, but there are sound reasons for requiring tests of cognitive processing in addition to the IQ test:

a) A cognitive processing deficit that explains why a person has academic deficits is what distinguishes Learning Disabilities from underpreparation, low motivation, socio-environmental influences, etc.

b) Psychological evaluations often make diagnoses based on one low subtest of the IQ test: for example, Digit Span. A low digit span score can occur for many different reasons. Other tests of cognitive processing help determine whether there is a pattern of deficits in short-term memory, auditory sequencing, attention and concentration, working memory, visual processing, etc.

c) Besides identifying deficit areas, it is extremely important to identify areas of strength. We try to use those strengths to design accommodations and learning strategies that will help compensate for the deficits.

Why do you need oral language assessment? The schools do not usually assess this formally and it often is not a problem, so why require it for everyone?

The role of oral language at the college and university level makes this criterion extremely important in determining strengths, deficits, and possible accommodations.

a) Assessment of listening comprehension helps determine:

i. How well students are able to gain accurate information from lectures, which is one of the primary modes of learning in most college courses.

ii. Whether a student is a good candidate for Recording For the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D).

b) Assessment of oral expression helps determine:

i. Whether oral testing would be appropriate or harmful. Sometimes students with problems in written expression ask to have oral testing and may even have had this accommodation in high school. If this is to be a helpful accommodation for students at the college level, they will need to have excellent oral language skills, including the ability to organize their thoughts spontaneously, stick to the topic, and be thorough. This is not easy, even for students without learning disabilities. We do not want to send students to professors for an individually administered oral test if the student’s oral language skills are not good. They would be better off writing their answers with extended time and other appropriate accommodations.

ii. Whether students are good candidates for voice-activated word processors.

c) Assessment in both listening comprehension and oral expression is crucial in determining whether a student will need for foreign language instruction to be primarily oral or written; or whether a substitution is warranted.

d) The criteria allow for an informal assessment and discussion of oral language skills, which will be considered sufficient if the student is not requesting accommodations that are specifically related to oral language. However, should they request such accommodations in the future, more formal documentation in this area may be required.

Source: Regents Center for Learning Disorders at Georgia Southern University