Accommodations for Students With Special Needs

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has always endeavored to assess all students selected as a part of its sampling process, including students who are classified by their schools as students with disabilities (SD) and/or as English language learners (ELL) or limited English proficient (LEP). The decision to exclude any of these students is made by school staff, who, using NAEP guidelines and each student's Individualized Education Program (IEP), decide whether the student can meaningfully be assessed.

A student with a disability was included in the NAEP assessment except in the following cases:

• the student's IEP team determined that the student could not participate; or,

• the student's cognitive functioning was so severely impaired that she or he could not participate; or,

• the student's IEP required that the student had to be tested with an accommodation or adaptation not offered by NAEP (see list of accommodations offered in the table below).

See more information about the history of the NAEP inclusion policy, a list of frequently provided accommodations, rates of specific accommodations, and exclusion rates.

Last updated 27 October 2008 (RF)

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