Accommodations for AP Exams

If you have IOAPA students who receive accommodations at school through an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) or 504 plan and are planning to take AP exams, now is the time to start thinking about requesting accommodations through the College Board. The deadline for submitting requests is February 17th, 2017, because the approval process could take up to 7 weeks. (Ugh.)

Good news! The College Board is making this process a lot simpler beginning in January 2017, which means that many students with existing school-based testing accommodations will be automatically approved for AP exam (and other College Board test) accommodations this year. Check out their press release or this Education Week blog post for more information. The tests to which this applies include: all AP® exams, the PSAT™ 10 and PSAT/NMSQT®, and the SAT® and SAT Subject Tests™. In the future, the College Board is also planning to expand accommodations for English learners.

This change also means that now is a great time to consider reevaluating students’ existing accommodations to ensure that they are still appropriate.

To find out more about eligibility, requesting accommodations, and steps to take after approval, visit the College Board Services for Students with Disabilities website. According to their website, most students work with their school counselors to submit these requests, but now is the time to start discussing the process at your school so that everyone is prepared to submit requests after returning from winter break.

Stay tuned for more on motivating students to take AP exams and preparing for exams. Are there other topics you’d like us to blog about? Let us know! Email us at kristin-flanary@uiowa.edu and/or katherine-schabilion@uiowa.edu.