I don't mean to make this out to be a bigger deal than it is-- in my daughter's view of things, that is, or in practical difficulty in implementation. After tomorrow, I anticipate that the College Board will hand us our magic letter in about three weeks' time. Truly.
There are a few factors at work, basically, which make this a little more complicated than Carefulmom's of Ark's situations:
a) student is not currently covered by duty of care of any local educational provider (this was easier for Ark and Carefulmom because their kids are already in a B&M setting, and therefore it seemed seamless enough to
everyone concerned to have those things carry over without a lot of thought)-- this can be a factor for any homeschooled, extremely rural, or virtually schooled student... or, for that matter, for any student that attends a very small private school or an alternative school of any kind. If the test location isn't your child's
regular school, there will be hoops to jump. The PSAT is the 'scholarship' test, and host schools
are not obligated to offer outside students seats. (It is different from the AP and SAT's that way, where there are pretty much unlimited seats for any who want them.) So her 504 plan and the sought accommodations
do not matchy-matchy. This is a red flag for the College Board and ACT both. A
bigger red flag, of course, is not having the disability documented to begin with; folks who have homeschooled exclusively or done things informally may really find themselves having to go to tremendous lengths (thus the specifics that I've provided, which are rather sledgehammer-like in nature...)
b) clueless new-to-the-job administrators/sp-ed staffers. They don't know FA's, they don't know my kid, they don't know what they are doing, basically...
This is one that can be in play for pretty much anyone, at any time. As we all know.
c) tight time-line. My preference would have been to begin this process about ten months out. That would have meant: a) no special doctor's appt., b) no special 504 meeting, and c) no worries re: how fast the College Board turns things around (6-8 weeks). That ship sailed when they bumped my DD from 9th to 11th grade officially in June, and we've had to scramble in a couple of different venues since then as we try to dot i's that
would have been made in the sophomore year in the ordinary course of events.
Plus, I figured that there is probably some value in putting this out there--
because it it is NOT out there anywhere for food allergy. There are others behind us.
Finally, I'm a dot-all-the-i's-and-cross-all-the-t's, obsessive kind of person when it comes to documentation. I like the sure thing, so I'm willing to go a little over the top (in terms of information overload, I mean--
not exaggeration of anything, which this is not).