Accommodations and modifications are tools used by your child’s IEP team to help level the playing field for kids with learning difficulties • Understanding the differences—along with what the options are— can help ensure that your child’s needs are met at school
The difference between success and failure for students with LD and ADHD often comes down to how effectively the curriculum is adapted to individual needs. Accommodations and modifications are the tools used by the IEP team to achieve that end.
Accommodations allow a student to complete the same tasks as their non-LD peers but with some variation in time, format, setting, and/or presentation. The purpose of an accommodation is to provide a student with equal access to learning and an equal opportunity to show what he knows and what he can do.
Accommodations are divided into four categories:
Common examples of accommodations include extended time to complete assignments, provision of notes or outlines, untimed tests, and reduced number of test questions.
Unlike accommodations, which do not change the instructional level, content, or performance criteria, modifications alter one or more of those elements on a given assignment. Modifications are changes in what students are expected to learn, based on their individual abilities.
Examples of modifications include use of alternate books, pass/no pass grading option, reworded questions in simpler language, daily feedback to a student.
Eve Kessler, Esq., a criminal appellate attorney with The Legal Aid Society, NYC, is co-founder of SPED*NET Wilton and a Contributing Editor of Smart Kids.
