The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and its implementing regulations require states to insure that students with disabilities are included in statewide large-scale assessment programs. Consistent with these requirements, the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) has addressed the participation of students with disabilities in its rules and regulations governing the statewide assessment program Arkansas Comprehensive Testing, Assessment and Accountability Program ACTAAP.
The ADE, Special Education Unit is providing the attached guidelines, including student participation criteria, to assist Individualized Education Program (IEP) Teams in determining how each student identified under the IDEA will be accounted for and included in the statewide student assessment program. Such participation includes both the Stanford 9 Norm-referenced Tests (NRT) and the Primary, Intermediate, and Middle Level Benchmark Exams Criterion-referenced tests (CRT).
Following the process set out in the attached guidelines, a student's IEP Team will determine annually whether the student will take a required statewide assessment without accommodations, with accommodations, or will be eligible to participate in an alternate assessment.
The process of determining a student's level of participation in the statewide testing program must be completed by the student's IEP team BEFORE testing commences in the fall of 2000. Each student's IEP Team must make the decision about how the student will participate in testing either during an annual review conference this spring or during a separate program review conference if the annual review conference has already been held.