1995 Report Summary

The exclusion of students with disabilities from assessments is being addressed by states. Nearly every state is in the process of reviewing and changing its guidelines for participation and accommodations. The use of accommodations in statewide assessments is quite prevalent, but not very consistent. States vary greatly in the detail of their accommodation guidelines, as well as in what they recommend or permit. Nearly every state has revised its accommodations guidelines within the past two years. Many exemplary efforts regarding both participation and accommodations are in progress across the country.

The guidelines for the states providing them are presented in this document, organized alphabetically by state. We attempted to pull from states' written documents those parts about the participation of students with disabilities in their assessments as well as assessment accommodations. We reproduced, as closely as possible, the formats in which the guidelines were originally presented by the states. We have provided the citations for the documents from which the guidelines were pulled. The reader should be aware that given the numerous changes that have already occurred in these documents during a relatively short time period, additional changes are likely to be made. We hope that this compilation of current guidelines will assist states and local education agencies as they work toward improving the results of education for all students.