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" I think you may have missed something...sorry. I teach students with disabilities at the high school level, many of whom stay in school until the age of 21. Despite that, they either take the test or an alternate assessment, both which count toward the school's scores. They are not, however, exempt from participating. While I completely understand the efforts put into teaching students with a variety of disabilities, the state of Illinois requires ALL students, with or without disabilities from participating in those tests. Like I said, they can receive the accommodations they would typically receive in a testing situation, but as I said, all students, regardless of disability, participate. Unless the law changes by the time your child is in high school, this will happen to him as well. I am in no way saying it is fair, because it is not, but right now, this is what No Child Left Behind has helped produce. "

" I guess I could have missed something but I don't think so. My son IS exempt from the normal curriculum and will graduate high school when he is 21 years old.Some kids really do have developmental impairments and have had early intervention and the best treatment available since birth and despite their gargantuan efforts compared to their peers they still are not able to perform at grade level because they are bona fide developmentaly disabled. It happens. "

" If your child is in elementary school, he/she may be able to be exempt from taking the state mandated tests. However, once they are in high school, there is no exemption. ALL students that are juniors are required by the state to take the PSAE (Prairie State Achievement Exam) and the ACT. They receive accommodations (but not paraphrasing, rewording, hints, clues, etc) and must take it. "

" I am currently a Cross-Categorical Sped teacher in a Champaign school. The one thing I've noticed about a lot of sped children is that a lot of these kids are highly capable. However, they need a little extra help and a push. Problem is, they get put in special ed at a young age and an IEP and they never get out. Not to mention they get told they're dumb and "special" all their lives so by the time they get to high school, they've given up. It's pretty sad. You should see what I have to deal with every day. Bright kids who are lazy, and they get to have speical accomodations. It's quite sad. It all goes back to the home. Someone should focus more on the correlation between crappy home lives and sped students. That should be the real study. "

" Previous posters need to go to the forum.Students who do not perform at grade level are exempted from taking these tests just as my child was. But then they are sometimes just warehoused. Dist 429 DOES have a problem. I don't have to deal with it anymore because my child has moved into Dist. 90 now. Times are changing since there is a different superintendent and new members on the school board. This is definitely a good thing. One more person needs to retire and a qualified person needs to be hired to replace her.The current "coordinator" kept arguing with me when I told her my son's private psychologist diagnosed him as autistic. She wouldn't refer his records to Special Services so I went to a school board meeting and I call Special Services and the regional superintendent myself. She refused for FIVE YEARS to do a full evaluation of my son's cognitive assessment. Well...needless to say once I got special services attention they got involved and they did it...THEY DIAGNOSED HIM AUTISTIC AND SENT HER TO AUTISM TRAINING!I received an aplogy at that time from Mr. Jontry which was kind, I wish Dist 429 had fired her, though! "

" My grandson was in special ed in Pontiac and doing well....his family moved kankakee county school system...four years ago in Pontiac he tested at 3rd grade level...he is now at 1st grade level .........HMMMMMMM I think the state needs to look at Kankakee schools..............................Pontiac was GREAT! "

" Did anyone think that perhaps their scores are lower because they are taking GRADE LEVEL state tests when they do NOT even perform at grade level?? Students should be taking exams at the grade level that they are performing at, then a true score of what the student knows is attained. These tests are ridiculous, and asking a SpEd student to perform as well as peers without disabilities is wrong! Those kids are frustrated, and these tests are designed for them to fail! In fact, I will go so far as to make a comparison that requiring SpEd students take grade level state exams is like making your 3 year old to do 8th grade Algebra! "

" they have Individualized Education Plans (IEP) because they have specific learning or behavior needs. it shouldn't be a shock that their scores are lower. i think the state is just bored so they decided to take a little trip to Pontiac. "