1. Accommodations
and
Modifications
August, 2009
ESU 7
402-564-0815

2. Chart 1:
Words defining ACCOMMODATIONS
Chart 2:
Words defining MODIFICATIONS
Chart 3:
Questions you want answered today.

3. Presentation Overview
• Least Restrictive Environment
• Accommodations vs. Modifications
• Instructional vs. Assessment
• Examples
• Questions and Answers

4. Least Restrictive
Environment
• IDEA 2004:
Special needs child has the right to education…
1) where they can academically achieve with
support, and
2) where is most like the educational setting
provided for peers without disabilities.

5. LRE cont…
• The student should be provided with
supplementary aids and services necessary
to achieve educational goals if placed in a
setting with non-disabled peers.

6. LRE cont…
– What if the classroom is not appropriate?
• the student would be placed in a more
restrictive environment (i.e.: a special
classroom or a hospital program.)
– Generally, the less opportunity a student
has to interact and learn with non-disabled
peers, the more that the setting is
considered to be restricted.

7. Least Restrictive Most Restrictive
Regular Classroom
with non-disabled
peers
Self contained, fully
exclusive special
education room or
program

8. LRE ensures…
• Not temporary guests mainstreamed into
general education classrooms.
• Accommodations/supports can be most
effectively provided in general education
classrooms.
• Inclusive practices improve learning for all
students.
• All learners are welcomed at the school and
are seen as the responsibility of all educators.

9. Definitions

10. Definitions
• Accommodations (Instructional):
– adjustments to make sure students have
equal access to curriculum and a way to be
successful.
– supports or services provided to help a
student across the general curriculum.

11. Definitions
• Accommodations (Assessment):
– Changes in assessment materials or
procedures that enable students to
participate in state or district
assessments in a way that assesses
abilities rather than disabilities.
– Accommodations provide equity, not
advantage

12. Definitions Cont…
• Accommodations (Assessment):
• A ‘tool’ that provides access –the
assessment is not changed
• (Some of us may ‘access’ a building by using the
stairs, some of us may ‘access’ that same building by
using a ramp –how we enter or ‘gain access’ to the
building does not change the building)

13. Definitions cont…
• Modifications (Instructional):
– curriculum and/or instruction is changed
quite a bit.
– changes made to the content and
performance expectations for students.

14. Definitions cont…
• Modifications (Assessment):
– Directly alters or lowers the expectation of
the assessment

15. Accommodations vs.
Modifications
• An Accommodation levels the playing
field
– Example: larger print, extended time
• A Modification changes the playing field
– Example decrease number of possible
answers, out-of-level testing

16. •Accommodations

17. Accommodation
“Truths”
• Implemented only after attempting
a variety of instructional strategies
• IEP team makes accommodation
decisions
• Required and allowable by law –
IDEA and NCLB

18. Accommodation
“Truths”
• Intended to reduce or even eliminate
the effects of a student’s disability.
• Do not reduce or change learning
expectations or alter the content of the
material to be mastered.
• Provide equitable access to instruction
and assessment.

19. Accommodation
“Truths”
• Use does not begin and end at the school
door.
• Generally are needed in the home, the
community, at work and in postsecondary
education.
• It is the responsibility of all teachers to
instruct the student in the implementation of
accommodations and encourage the student
to use those accommodations whenever
needed.

20. Examples

21. Examples of
Accommodations
• Presentation–repeat directions,
read aloud, use of larger print
• Response –mark in book, use of
recording aids, point
• Setting–study carrel, special
lighting, separate room
• Timing/Scheduling–extended time,
frequent breaks

22. Examples of
Accommodations
• Most Common
– Small Group administration
– Read-aloud
– Extended time
• Most Effective
– Computer Administration
– Read-aloud
– Extended time
(NCEO –National Center for Educational Outcomes – www.education.umn.edu/nceo/)

23. Examples
• A child with delayed reading skills can participate in
class discussions about a novel if she’s listened to
the audio tape version of the book.
• A child with poor writing and spelling skills may use
assistive technology — a tape recorder or word
processor — rather then struggle with pencil and
paper to do her report about a famous person in
history.

24. Examples cont…
• For a child who’s easily distracted by
background noise, an accommodation
that might be offered is seating the
student away from the window and
heater, or close to the teacher for
prompting.

25. Examples cont…
• additional time for work completion,
• readers or recorded materials,
• Calculators
• spell checkers,
• other electronic devices,
• special seating arrangements,
• enlarged text,
• scribes/note takers
• shortened assignments.

26. Nebraska State-Wide
Assessment:
Accommodations
• See handout.

27. When are Teachers
REQUIRED to follow the
Accommodations?
• Consistently
– that is, at all times, and under all types of
circumstances.
– However, the IEP should differentiate between
accommodations for instruction and
accommodations for assessment
• and parents should understand the different
consequences of each for their child.

28. • Cannot read a test to a child if it is a reading
comprehension test.
• A spellchecker may be allowed to help a child
who’s writing an essay.
• Cannot use spellchecker on spelling test.
• Must take a look at the information that
accompanies the assessment to determine
appropriateness of specific accommodations
Exceptions…

29. Modifications

30. Modification “Truths”
• When modifications are made, kids with
disabilities are not expected to master the
same academic content as others in the
classroom.
• A child who can’t learn the twenty-word
spelling list every week may learn only ten
words. This results in different standards for
mastery — half the number of words as kids
without a disability learn weekly.

31. Modification “Truths”
• A fifth-grade child with a severe math
disability who isn’t ready to learn fractions
and decimals may still be working on addition
and subtraction.
• This means that his instructional level has
changed significantly — second-, not fifth-
grade instruction — from that of other
students in his classroom.

32. Examples

33. Modification Examples
• Examples of modification include, but are not
limited to:
– to lessen depth or breadth in the information/material
covered (e.g. fewer objectives,
– shortened units or lessons, fewer pages or problems,
etc.),
– materials written at a lower readability level (high-
interest, low-ability books).
– Out-of-grade level materials (third-grade math
standards for a seventh grader)

34. Modification Examples
• Reducing assignments and
assessments so a student only needs
to complete the easiest problems
• Make assignments easier (crossing out
half response choices)
• Provide hints or clues

35. Frequently
Asked
Questions

36. FAQ
• Q: What are accommodations?
• A: Accommodations, determined by the
Individualized Education Plan (IEP)
team are:
1) instructional strategies,
2) response methods,
3) instructional settings and
4) timing and scheduling.

37. FAQ cont…
• Q: How do accommodations and
modifications differ?
• A:
– Accommodations do not alter academic content or
expectations.
– Modifications refer to practices and procedures
that alter or reduce the learning expectations
and/or the content of the material to be mastered.

38. FAQ cont…
• Q: May grades be reduced for students
using accommodations?
A: No.
– Students completing their work using IEP
determined accommodations must be given full
credit for their accomplishments. To do otherwise
would be discriminatory and in violation of the
student’s civil rights.
– Federal law does not allow employers to reduce
the pay of employees using glasses, hearing aides
or wheelchairs to perform their work.

39. Q and A cont…
• Q: Do the courts hold general education
teachers accountable for the instruction of
students with disabilities?
• A: School districts must make available a full
range of supports and services in the general
education setting to accommodate students
with disabilities
• Just because a student learns differently from
other students does not necessarily warrant
exclusion from general education.

40. Q and A cont…
• Q: Are there legal consequences for
teachers choosing not to follow the
accommodations and/or modifications in a
student’s IEP
• A: Doe v. Withers (20 IDELR 422, 426-27)
Teacher refused to provide oral testing
accommodations to a student with disabilities.
The student failed the class. The student’s
family sued and won.

41. Q and A cont…
• Q: What do accommodations look
like?
• A: Everyone uses them.
– Glasses
– a ladder
– crutches
– Speed dial
– PDA

42. Sources
• Perske Special Populations Office January,
2007
• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA) 2004
• No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
• National Center for Educational
Outcomes (NCEO)–
www.education.umn.edu/nceo/
• RULE 51

43. More Sources…
• Bateman & Bateman, 2002; Turnbull,
Turnbull, Wehmeyer, & Park, 2003
• Nebraska Department of Education
Accommodations Guidelines, 2006 http
://www.nde.state.ne.us/SPED/sped.html)
• SPED Regional WS 2004