School Accommodations

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Let's have an honest discussion about this.


I've wondered about this since I was young. I notice a change in what is offered for my son (a 7-year-old), versus what was offered for me in the late 80s and 90s.

At various times in my life, I was offered many different school accomodations. They seem perfectly reasonable...until I thought about work life afterward. As a child, I often refused accommodations that I thought would not ultimately be for my benefit. I don't receive accommodations at work (not do I want to).

Some of the accommodations I had include:
-extra time on tests
-separate location for tests (supposed to be quieter, but was not)
-separation from other students (when I was younger)
-note-taker
-ASL interpreter (I have no hearing impairment)


In some regards I think some people my age may have gotten "accommodated" out of the workforce. What I mean by that is, how would the difficult to employ persons change if they had less accommodations and gained more skills? I know that's a fine line there and each individual is completely different. I will explain more below. Please don't hate me yet.


I should not get an ASL interpreter. That's not something I will ever receive in the workforce. If I were hearing impaired, this would be a different discussion, but I am not.

I think a note-taker is fine. It bares a resemblance to what can be offered at work. One can typically ask for a printout of the slides of a presentation, for instance, of no handouts are given.

On separation - I like how this is handled for my son so much better than it was for me. At 7, he already has more coping skills in a sensory-loaded environment than I do. And I think a considerable amount of these were learned at school (he's been at his school since he was 3). I was either completely separated, put in a cardboard box (when young), or offered a testing center (college). My son, who also has sensory issues, has a quiet place in his classroom with sensory calming tools that children can go to as needed. He is also free to go to the bathroom (a one room bathroom) without asking first. There is a tiny music box that a teacher or any student can pick up and play quietly to signal that the class is getting too loud. My son has headphones in his backpack. He is free to move when he needs to. Apart from group time (30 minutes sitting on a rug in comfortable clothing and slippers, after yoga and meditation), he is not required to stay in his seat. He can do his work on the floor or at a table, as long as it gets done. Because he can choose where he sits, and it changes throughout the day, he can self-monitor and correct for sensory needs.

The only one I have trouble with is extra time. I rarely used it in school, but it was offered. On any non-multiple choice exam, I was always the last to turn in my work. I could make it happen within the allotted time (just barely). Whenever I was given extra time (only in college), I did take it. I don't get extra time at work, but I need it! I constantly feel like life is moving too fast. On verbal tasks, my testing revealed a 68-point jump in IQ for untimed tasks versus times tasks (this effectively doubles my IQ in my response and moves me from the bottom of the bell-curve to the top--if you just give me some time).

Perhaps that is one accommodation I should have taken more often, as well as practiced any life skills that would help me acquire it in life after school. (At my current job, I have a 45 minute break which I use to get more thinking time for work. This is unpaid time, but time I worked into my schedule so that I can feel like I'm giving what I'm capable of. At a previous job, I used to show up 30 minutes early and gain my hearings for the day.) Truthfully, needing more time is something I seem to have even more trouble with at work than I did at school. I've been to therapy most of my life (and am still in speech therapy where we work on processing speed) and it's still too slow. I think it truly is what it is and I need to find ways to make it work at each job I encounter.

My current philosophy for accommodations for my son is to lean into things he can do, instead of what the school can do (his school is awesome, but if it wasn't I would lobby for him to have headphones, for instance, because adults can use headphones--or at least in-ear ear plugs--at work). But, I am also thinking about what are realistic accommodations for him in the future workplace. He's young still, so we haven't encountered everything.



Talk to me about accommodations. Yours. Your child's. Good ones, bad ones. Your philosophy on them, etc.

I don't think I made clear that the things I mentioned my son has at school (freedom of movement, etc.) are offered to all of the students. My son does not have any special accommodations at all.

I take that back, all of his teachers have independently decided to tell him verbally of changes to the routine ahead of time, when possible. I have mixed feelings about that, actually. He may have asked his teachers to do this...in which case, he's capable of advocating for himself already. (He also needs practice in handling life's inevitable surprises).

I think in general, it is not sensible to have accommodations unless you need them. I don't think that they should just be offered without taking the individual into account. On the other hand, when a child does need them, and the school won't offer them, that can be a huge problem, as well. "Sink or swim" does not work if you have no capacity for whatever that thing is.

We had no need for extra test time for my son. It was not offered. We did not request it. The things we had accommodations for were handwriting finger guides, knobby seat cushions for posture and stimuli etc. (Not that they worked) The thing we really needed was a one-on-one aide, and they gave us that off IEP for a time but I never could get it added, and they refused to make it permanent. That is one of the contributing factors to me having to pull him out and homeschool.

In our case, whether or not this is a thing available in the workplace was irrelevant b/c, getting into the workplace is impossible if you cannot get through school. And he really needed this to keep him on task and to eliminate social issues that he was not capable of handling on his own. He is oblivious to social stigma, and so this was a non-factor as well. He had a quiet space and some other things, but nothing he did not really need.

*I am not formally diagnosed and got nothing. The only thing that would have been nice was if I had a place to go at lunch at my closed campus HS for lunch other than the cafeteria. Eventually anyone could go to the library and treat it as a study hall, but that was not until my senior year. This would have no impact on anyone's transition to college or work, b/c generally adults have lunch options as to where to go.

We've had all those accommodations for S1, except for the ASL thing, starting from the first IEP. Four years later, they are starting to remove accommodations as he begins to demonstrate that he has developed coping skills on his own. The goal is to eventually get him to be accommodation free, which sets him up for success in adult life. But maybe it's just my school system that works that way.

I live in Belgium...

DD is average intelligence but her social inadequacies were what made her stand out from the rest in her mainstream school. She got bullied and eventually socially excluded. She had a gem of a grade teacher for Yr2 and Yr3 and his efforts pulled her through academically. She got tested for AS in the beginning of Yr4 but her teacher did not even believe she needed the remedial she was getting was needed. She had to accept it in the end as other agencies got involved but to her DD laze and unmotivated.

She started Yr5 with big reservations from my side but school wiped them aside. 2 months later her teacher was with his arms up in the air because DD lost interest in learning and was already behind. An emergency meeting was called at the remedial agency.

Her remedial agreed that DD needed more than what her mainstream school had to offer and when a space became available in special education we jumped at the chance.
There are actually 8 types of special education here. Her school deals with type 3 (behavioural and emotional problems) and type 7 (specifically for AS children in this case).

The classes are small, max 9 children and in the case of DD the maths and parts of her language syllabus is taught 1:1.
They get the same material as in mainstream but then at their own pace. There are no defined grades. The classes are mixed ages as are the abilities altough all children in one class are roughly on the same level. Not everyone in her class is at the same level.
In DD's class all are Lvl 4-6. DD for instance is now Lvl 5 for Dutch and French but still on Lvl4 for maths.

Secondary education in Belgium is streamed and with a lvl4 they are allowed to enter vocational training. If they make the grade for lvl 5 or 6 they can join the A-stream and eventually chose between technical or academic stream.

She has managed to catch up with Dutch, maths and French since she has been there. As an incentive we had said that if she finished Lv5 across the board she can have an Ipod and that seems to be enough for her to want to put some effort into it.

She gets classes in Social Skills and any playground issues are dealt with sternly. There is good communication with school and I could not ask for better.

My main thought regarding comparing accommodations in school to the workplace revolves around the fact that kids grow and develop. My hope is that by properly accommodating and supporting my kids now, they will not need them when they have matured into adulthood. What I am fairly certain about is the fact that if they did not receive "special help" now, they would not gain the skills necessary for effective functioning in the future. The gap between them and their peers would get wider and wider, not narrower.

For example: my daughter had a 1:1 for the first 2 years she went to school. She needed it at the time because her verbal skills were limited and she had pronounced difficulty with initiating and maintaining interactions with others and staying on task. If she would have been in school on her own at that point without the 1:1, it would have been a disaster. Expecting her to have those skills (which were age appropriate) would not have bestowed them upon her. Flash forward to today: she does not have a 1:1. She does not need one. Her language skills have improved, as has her ability to initiate and maintain interactions and stay on task. She may have developed these skills later than her peers, but she did develop them. I think having the support necessary when she needed it was instrumental in her ability to eventually "catch up" with her peers.

Another example: my son's "study hall" has been replaced by an enhancement class in which he is paired with a skilled teacher who works closely with him and 5 other students. It is not considered "special education" in the formal way, but it is an extra accommodation that "typical" students do not get. She tracks and monitors his homework (which at this point she turns in for him) and helps him organize his book bag and folders. This small bit of extra attention has kept him at grade level. Before he was given it, he was falling behind. If he were allowed to fall behind in 7th grade, what hope would their be for him to graduate? How would he ever get caught up? When he was in K-2, the primary issues he faced at school were related to intrusive behavior (in other kids' space, not keeping his hands and feet to himself, etc). Yet, he has matured past these issues and they are now non-issues. I would like to believe that with some further maturity, his extreme level of disorganization will improve. I don't want him to fall behind while allowing for natural maturation to happen. I doubt he will ever have immaculate organizational skills, but I am confident that one day he will be able to manage well enough to have a job (as I have). But if he is not able to keep up with the academics (through support), he will be handicapped by his lack of education by the time his executive functioning catches up "enough."

We have, however, turned down unnecessary accommodations that were given based on diagnosis alone. For example, my son was given "extra time," but he has never once needed it, so we got rid of it. Well, actually, he just did some Core Curriculum State testing and he did not finish his essay, but lots of kids didn't finish the essay. I don't want him to have accommodations that give him an extra advantage. I just want to level the playing field. If many kids did not finish, and he did not finish even though he normally does, then I consider him to be in the same boat as many of his peers. I don't have a problem with that.

The goal with accommodations is to remove the barriers that keep your child from accessing the curriculum, and to prevent him from getting so frustrated he checks out and gives up. But, I agree, they should not be used to create a life of dependency. When you are lucky, the school will offer everything and you and your child can decide which he needs. That is how it was for us: they offered, we decided.

Some things we left in "just in case" and my son rarely used them. What I call the "escape clause" (being able to leave to safe location at any time he choose, to prevent melting down in public) was something my son needed in elementary school, but never used after that. Still, I wanted it in the IEP "just in case."

Extra time was always in the IEP, and never used.

Writing accommodations were consistent, but I turned down the idea of going to voice-to-text. I felt he could learn to type, and that would be more self-sufficient. And he did learn to type.

Each step of the way I talked to my son to make sure he was on-board with my decisions.

My son developed a trust with me and the school that we would never ask him to do things that were beyond his abilities. As a result, when it came time to push, he put in the extra effort. That is really important, I think, for special needs kids to feel: trust that you do actually understand them, and will not ask them to go beyond what they are ready for. Because sometimes we ask them to work, really, really, REALLY hard. They have to have faith in their ability to succeed if they are going to put nose to the grindstone that closely, in a way most kids their age will never be asked to.

End goal is to get the child through the rough spots and then remove as many accommodations as possible. At the beginning of this year, my son went off IEP because the only accommodation he still needs is permission to take a computer to school and type. He did not need an IEP for that.

Yes, he is a little slower and has some processing speed issues, but he choose long ago to give up his extra time. As you noted, at some point our kids will have to live and work in the real world, and be able to survive in it. He knows that his slower speed will be a negative in the workplace, but he also knows that he will bring off-setting strengths. He does like quiet and can't have distractions, but most testing environments are adequate and, so, he does not ask for accommodation there. Once he got past the biggest hurdles, he became curious how well he could do "on his own." Without anything special. A smart parent, IMHO, sees that window and lets their child test himself. Assuming, of course, his abilities are strong enough to not completely sink him - that would be too destructive, usually.

All of it is a very individual process. What each child needs and how long they need it is going to vary a lot. You pay attention to your unique child and push when you can, support when you have to, and let him develop on his own unique timeline. There are no short cuts for parents; you have to pay attention to your child and be involved. You can't just get your child an IEP and step away.

I worried and agonized over each and every decision and each and every push. You can probably find all sorts of ruminations from me in that area if you go back far enough. We have to ask those questions, and the answers are never obvious.

So, end of all that: you are right, lol. Good luck figuring it out for your unique child.

That was a beautiful post, DW_a_mom.



It was also very interesting to hear how things work in Belgium. Thank you for sharing!


By these posts, I am so thankful we don't have to have an IEP. My son is currently in a private school that simply runs differently. I'm certain we *would* need accommodations if he were in a typical school. I was so scarred by my elementary years and my son is quite a lot like me that I decided to keep him out of public school until middle school. We were given some paperwork for an IEP at his evaluation, we just don't need it currently. If he needed something different, I could just talk to his teacher.

I also never had an IEP that I am aware of. Did they do that in the 80s and 90s? I think all my teachers just did those things. My mother was not the type to push for anything. In college, I did bring paperwork from my psychiatrist for accommodations through the school. I felt odd about it though, so the next school I went to, I didn't do it. I did, however, take full advantage of their free "academic counseling" - which I would HIGHLY recommend to any new college student, if it's available. I went weekly or less and talked with this counselor about how school was going, how studying was going, how my speech in class was going (I had a class were participating in class discussions was mandatory and I have an extremely difficult time with that, it was the single hardest thing I did in college. --in hindsight, I don't think I would have regretted using an AAC for that...I think).

The unfortunate thing about the work world is that you have to prove yourself first, and then you can be quirky. I use an AAC, part-time, with family and friends (I use it only to formulate my thoughts and then read them, but my conversation partner needs to wait longer than in a typical conversation). Frankly, I'd love to use it at work, but I'm not quite ready. I'm starting to get labeled and seen in a really positive light (un-deserved, I think), despite my quietness/difficulty with speech, so perhaps one day it will work out.

Sooo...tell me about IEPs.

In the info on dyslexia I've been reading lately, it says many people with dyslexia learn to read but will read much more slowly than average for the rest of their lives. Additional time on a test often results in a dramatic improvement in their test score -- sometimes from failing to A, just because it gives them enough time to read all the questions and show what they know. By contrast, a similar amount of extra time for someone without dyslexia doesn't have a major impact on their test scores. I imagine people who write very slowly due to dysgraphia or other issues with getting words onto a page might see a similar benefit.

There aren't many instances in adult life when you're given exactly one hour to read material and respond.

Yes, I think speed is very important in the workforce. I have found it to be more troublesome at work than at school. It is probably the only thing like that.

As DW_a_mom mentioned, adults are generally more free to find work arounds the school children are. I am for more freedom (within structure) for schoolchildren so they have practice finding and honing these skills.

I think that children are children whether they have ASD or not, and they're not supposed to be able to handle adult work situations yet; the goal of school is to work them up to that point. So I don't necessarily think that just because you wouldn't get that at work, you shouldn't have it at school. In kindergarten they give all kids a lot more "accommodations" but then they slowly take them away as they gain skills and get older. But I do think that the accommodations should be based on the real need for it; if you don't need it, you shouldn't get it. The goal of accommodation is to allow the student to learn and move up. I think extra time can be very good for some kids, because to me the purpose of the test is to test if you understand the material on the test - it's not to see how fast you can do it. So if the child knows all the material but can't process the information fast enough, to me, that test is not testing what it's supposed to be testing. Not all jobs require you to process things quickly. Having said that, if there's a way for the child to process faster (for example typing) then that accommodation is preferable.

My kids don't have AS- they have classic autism. Both have completely unrealistic accommodations for the workplace including an IEP, a 1:1 aide, etc. So I would say that the accommodations are supposed to work towards making the individual child as independent as they can possibly be - but for some kids, that's not very independent at all. That's just the reality of the situation.

As for IEPs: my kids' IEPs are formulated from a group discussion with myself, the teacher, the aide, the principal, and however many "home" therapists are able to come, or otherwise they write a report for the meeting. We come up with a list of goals to be completed by the end of the semester and long-term goals for the end of the year. The semester goals are smaller things leading up to the big goal - for example semester goal could be "stand quietly for O' Canada" and the year-end goal would be "does morning routine appropriately with no crying". And then a strategy is formulated; how many times a day we practise this, etc.

When I was in school, there were no accommodations and it sucked. I hated school. And they had those damned buzzing, ugly lights that made me want to vomit....

I don't think the goal of accommodations is to acclimate people to work. They are just about helping people to get an education.

I don't see them as bad in any way.

I can do more now than could when I was 25 and I could do more when I was 25 than I could when I was 18 and I could do more at 18 than I could at 13 etc...

If your kid has trouble finishing on time or needs a scribe, this is not going to be a barrier to employment later.

My sense is that the thing that keeps people out of employment is the core social communication deficits. Sensory issues could be, too.
Too many accommodations in school? I don't think so.

Let's say there's a kid who needs a little extra time to finish his math work, and no accommodation is made for him.
This causes him to fall behind academically, and drags down his self esteem. So now instead of a kid who just needs a little extra time, you have a kid who also needs a math tutor and a psychologist. Doesn't make sense to me.

My apologies if some of this was already mentioned...

In looking at the OP, it seems that the biggest problem for work (and school) is slow processing. In my experience, this is a very difficult to improve. There are exercises that may help but it's terribly difficult to make a lot of headway, and it drags down my son's IQ a great deal. My hope and prayer for the future is that he finds a job where he has the time he needs to reveal his brilliance. Some people find a way, others don't.

I think his processing time will improve somewhat as many of his other traits have. In the meantime, he works and thinks on a very high level. It would be wrong to either ignore exercises that will help his processing speed, or to fail to accommodate him so that he will continue to learn at his level.

I also agree that some accommodations can hinder the child. Parents need to be vigilant about what accommodations are being made, and how they are helping or hindering their child. I've made mistakes in this area, and thankfully people have pointed things out to me.

For my son, by far the best exercise to help his processing is a karate game similar to Simon Says. It's not easy on teacher or student. There is an expectation of respect in the class. So sometimes the teacher tricks the kids into giving him respect when he didn't say Simon Says. The reason it works for processing speed is: 1. My son is much more interested in winning this than doing an activity for me 2. The teacher calls out commands very fast. 3. The child has to translate the command into body posture while he also tries to remember if the teacher said Simon Says. My son often wins, but when he fails it is because he took too long to think.

One of my accommodations is/was having some type of homework/studying class. I can get help from others and finish most of my HW before leaving school for the day. It really helps because no one at home knows Geometry (and I suck at it), none of my friends live close, and I forget a lot of the material after coming home.

I had a paraeducator with me, every day, from kindergarten to about 7th grade. It slowly went down from there due to my age and getting better with classes, routine and curriculum. I needed one to help me out, make sure I remembered the curriculum, and in case of a meltdown during class. There were a few here and there but not many. They also communicated to my mom via a notebook with info about how I did in the day and what's planned for the future, behavior, etc. There would also be really good notes in there as well if I was doing well.