testing accommodations for homeschooling

I never imagined homeschooling high school would be this way.  I thought it would be more hands-on and I'd be more involved.  I had no idea how learning would work, how so much time would be spent "cocooning" and being nocturnal, how things would seem to be moving in slow motion and then would suddenly start moving at warp speed, with astounding bursts of intellectual growth and emotional maturity.

Six months ago, Chen wasn't sure she even wanted to go to college or not.  I was trying to figure out how much time, money, and energy to devote to getting testing accommodations.

Chen has always had a "processing issue," meaning she reads things 4 times before she understands them.  I noticed when she first started reading that she would read, understand some of it, read it again, understand more, read it again, understand more, and read it again.  She liked and likes to read the same things over and over.  She also has always had some trouble with fine motor things like buttoning, zipping, spreading cream cheese, putting hair into a ponytail, etc.  None of these things were a major issue because in homeschool, we could take the time for her to do things at her pace.

When I asked her about college plans last year, thinking about the SAT/ACT, Chen didn't know what she wanted to do.  She wasn't enthused about classroom learning, had about a 15-20 minute attention span when we studied Bio, could hardly tolerate lectures.  She wasn't sure college was suited to her style of learning and I tended to agree with her.  She's always been a kinesthetic learner who likes to choose what to learn, which is why unschooling worked out so well for her.  As much as I think college is still the gold standard for getting a job (though not essential), it seemed like there was a good chance she'd be miserable and would not thrive.  I talked myself down, telling myself that my goal is for her to be emotionally capable of supporting herself.  And if her idea of supporting herself is living in a tiny apartment and making barely enough money so she can travel the world, well, that's a life and it's a rich one.

She has a 504 from taking a couple of classes in the school I work at, where they quickly realized she's unusually slow and gave her extra time to complete her tests.  I had her tested by the district, and here's the frustrating part about homeschool and special ed: since she was working on grade level, she didn't qualify for an IEP.  But.  Since she's homeschooled, I've been giving her the accommodations she needs in order to do grade level work!  So we don't have years of documentation that she needs extra time or other accommodations, like typing essays.

So we can do psychoeducational testing.  Six months ago, I didn't want to invest in that (it's very pricey) if she might take the SAT/ACT and she might want to go to college and it might or might not be worthwhile.  So we didn't.

Fast forward a few months later, and finished with one college course  (Russian) and halfway through another (Psych), and it's like she has a fire lit under her.  She spends time doing math problems every day.  She took out some ACT books from the library.  She feels sure she will do very well on the test--if she has the time to actually process the questions so she can understand them.   I'm not sure if she can get the extra time she needs for the ACTs.  They also have an option to spread the test out over more than one day, and since she does reach saturation with stimulation, that would help a lot, too. 

It turns out you can't have testing done less than 6 (4?) months before taking the test.  It's March now, and she registered to take it in June.  That means the June test won't take into account any recommendations.

So for now we try to see if the 504 is sufficient.  But I'm also trying to get her tested.  An official diagnosis would give her the accommodations she needs.  And if that's the case, then she probably won't take the ACT in June, but later.  And that might affect applying to colleges.  But in homeschooling we are nothing if not flexible.