Providers are encouraged to adhere to the following when preparing documentation:
- Provide complete test results, not just partial scores. Subtest scores alone (e.g., from intellectual ability, memory, or attention tests) do not establish the need for accommodations. Checklists and surveys can supplement but cannot replace clinical observations and judgment.
- Standard scores are preferred, though percentile ranks are required at a minimum. Data must demonstrate a substantial learning limitation justifying accommodations, with the student’s strengths and weaknesses linked to these limitations.
- Tests must be reliable, valid, and standardized for adolescents or adults, preferably using the most recent version and norms. Results must document the nature and severity of the disability, supplemented by inventories, surveys, and professional observations to develop a clinical hypothesis.
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For cognitive disabilities (i.e., ADHD, learning disabilities, traumatic brain injuries), Autism Spectrum Disorder, and some behavioral health disabilities, current psycho-educational or neuropsychological assessment is recommended to evaluate the impact on the student. The assessment must include a comprehensive, individualized, standardized, and norm-appropriate battery that reflects the functional limitations necessitating accommodation.
The following is a helpful, but not exhaustive, list of standardized measures used by evaluators:
Academic Achievement
- Gray Oral Reading Test (GORT)
- Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement
- Nelson-Denny Reading Test
- Scholastic Abilities Test for Adults (SATA)
- Stanford Diagnostic Mathematics Test
- Stanford Test of Academic Skills (TASK)
- Test of Adolescent and Adult Word Finding (TAWF)
- Test of Written Language (TOWL)
- Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT)
- Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement (WJ-ACH)
Specific achievement tests are useful instruments when administered under standardized conditions and when the results are interpreted within the context of other diagnostic information. Results from these instruments must include standard scores, at a minimum, and may be supplemented by percentiles; however, age and grade equivalents are not appropriate. The Wide Range Achievement Test – 4 (WRAT-4) is not a comprehensive measure of achievement and therefore should not be used as the sole measure of achievement.
Attention / Memory / Learning
Objective Measures
- California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT)
- Conners' Continuous Performance Test (CPT)
- Continuous Visual Memory Test (CVMT)
- CNS Vital Signs Neurocognitive Testing
- Creyos ADHD Assessment
- Integrated Visual and Auditory Continuous Performance Test (IVA+Plus)
- Qb Check
- Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test
- Rey Osterrieth Complex Figure Test
- Test of Variable Attention (TOVA)
- WAIS-IV Working Memory Index (WMI)
- Wechsler Memory Scales (WMS)
- Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning (WRAML)
- Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST)
- Woodcock Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities (WJ-COG)
- Working Memory Cluster
- Delayed Recall Cluster
- Long Term Retrieval Cluster
- Short Term Memory Cluster
Self-Rating Measures
- Barkley Adult ADHD Rating Scale (BAARS)
- Brown Attention Deficit Disorder Scales for Adolescents or Adults (BADDS)
- Conners' Adult ADHD Rating Scale (CAARS)
Cognitive Ability
- Kaufman Adolescent and Adult Intelligence Test
- Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales (RIAS)
- Stanford-Binet 5 (SB5)
- Test of Non-Verbal Intelligence (TONI-3)
- Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) or Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC)
- Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability (WJ-COG)
The Slosson Intelligence Test – Revised, Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI) and the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test (K-BIT-2) are primarily screening devices and are not comprehensive enough to provide information necessary to make accommodation(s) decisions.
Executive Functioning
Executive functioning involves cognitive control and is closely linked to self-regulation, including behaviors like self-monitoring and frustration tolerance. It focuses on the ability to plan, initiate, sustain, and adjust actions. Executive functioning develops gradually from childhood into early adulthood.
Objective Measures
- California Verbal Learning Test-Clustering score
- Delis Kaplan Executive Functioning System
- Rey Osterrieth Complex Figure organization score
- Stroop Test
- Trail Making Test
- Tower tests (Tower of London, Tower of Hanoi)
- Wisconsin Card Sorting Test
Self-Rating Measures
- Barkley Deficit in Executive Function Rating Scale (BDEFS)
- Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning (BRIEF)
Language and Communication
Expressive language is the ability to communicate meaning clearly using age-appropriate speech and intonation. Receptive language is the ability to comprehend speech, follow directions, and understand both literal and figurative language. Communication skills encompass these linguistic abilities as well as listening, interpreting, and engaging in verbal and non-verbal exchanges (e.g., gestures).
- Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF)
- Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP)
- Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised
- Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule
- Test of Adolescent and Adult Language
- Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised
Psychiatric, Personality, and Behavioral Assessments
In addition to a structured clinical interview and description of the DSM diagnostic criteria endorsed, the following measures may be helpful in evaluating behavioral or mental health disorders.
Self-Rating Measures
- Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)
- Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)
- Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC)
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7)
- Millon Clinical Multiaxial Personality Inventory (MCMI)
- Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
- Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ)
- Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9)
- Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI)
- The Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS)
Visual-Motor or Fine-Motor Integration
These tests can be used to document difficulty with visual-motor integration skills and fine-motor deficits, such as those that may be present in students diagnosed with dysgraphia or other types of learning or medical/physical disabilities.
- Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration (DTVMI)
- Bender Gestalt Test of Visual Motor Perception
- Rey-Osterreith Complex Figure Test
- Wide Range Assessment of Visual Motor Ability