Testing Students with School-Based Accommodations

For SAT Weekend testing, students can be approved for center-based accommodations (CBA) or school-based accommodations (SBA). Most accommodations are provided at a test center and within the Bluebook app. For example, students with accommodations such as extended time, extended breaks, text-to-speech, and preferential seating test in a test center.

School-based accommodations are most often provided at a school and are overseen by the primary SSD coordinator or their appointee. For SBA at school, they will act as test coordinator.

School SSD coordinators sometimes ask test center coordinators to administer the test to students approved for SBA on a Saturday (or Sunday). In rare cases, College Board might ask them to test students with school-based accommodations who don’t attend their school. Even when they test at a weekend test center, students with SBA are listed on their own roster in a different Test Day Toolkit administration. Find out how to administer SBA at a test center.

You can find more information about CBA and SBA in the Test Coordinator Manual.

Examples of School-Based Accommodations

• Assistive technology
• Braille accommodations (use of braille writer, screen reader, refreshable braille, or braille paper test)
• Use of any paper supplements (reader’s script, raised line drawings)
• Human reader or scribe for digital tests
• Paper test for digital assessments
• Screen reader for digital assessments
• Dictation (speech to text)
• Limited testing time or more than double time for reading or math (may require multiday testing)
• School-based testing, one-to-one testing, or home/hospital testing
• Other (recording responses, modified setting, etc.)

Students with any of these SBAs will usually be tested at a school.

See About Accommodations for more information about specific school-based accommodations.

Important Points About Testing with Accommodations

• Most school-based students will test in Bluebook, which manages all timing, including accommodated breaks.
  • Extra breaks and extended breaks are part of the student's test package. The student will receive a notification to take a break and will not see a Pause button.
  • Breaks as needed is the only accommodation that gives the student control over the breaks. In this case, the student must toggle the break on and off by using the Pause button.
  • Once the standard time has fully elapsed on a module, students testing with extended time can move on when they are ready.
• Work with the technology coordinator or your IT department to ensure that students approved for assistive technology (AT) have their settings configured before testing begins.
• Students testing over 2 days will stop Day 1 after the Reading and Writing section. Proctors should prepare to guide students using the instructions under "Students Testing Over Multiple Days" in the Accommodations Guide for Proctors in the Proctor Manual.
• Students approved for up to double time may test in 1 day. Be sure to refer to the charts for timing and breaks in the Proctor Manual ahead of time, and be aware that testing may not be completed until the early afternoon.

Handling Paper Supplements and Paper Testing

• SSD coordinators should use the School-Based Accommodations Guide for Coordinators in the Coordinator Manual for instructions on managing and distributing paper materials, as well as using the Testing Room Materials Report form to record materials assigned to a proctor and testing room. Students testing with any type of paper materials (supplements and/or actual paper tests) must receive their assigned materials as noted in the Shipping Notice sent with the materials.
• Students testing digitally with paper supplements have test packages with slightly longer timing than the adaptive test that most students receive.
• Paper testers won’t have an admission ticket, and proctors should identify them from their photo ID and physical appearance.
• Proctors for paper testers must time the test and breaks using the scripts in the SAT Weekend Paper Testing Script. Test coordinators (if asked to test these students) and SSD coordinators will follow all instructions in the School-Based Accommodations Guide for Coordinators in the Coordinator Manual for handling the test books and returning them for scoring. Proctors should review the information under "How to Proctor Paper Tests" in the School-Based Accommodations Guide for Proctors in the Proctor Manual for how to check students in and when to start following the scripts in the SAT Weekend Paper Testing Script.