Students with Special Education Needs

Students with special education needs who are unable to participate in PISA as a result of a lack of appropriate accommodations will be recorded as such on the Student Tracking Form on assessment day.

Students with special education needs should be identified with the appropriate SEN (special education needs) code. SEN codes are purely informational and do not exempt students from the PISA assessment.

For the list of SEN codes and their definitions, please see Special Education Needs Codes.

 

PISA is intended to be as inclusive as possible, and all students who are capable of understanding the initial test instructions are encouraged to participate. Students with a SEN code can participate in PISA with an accommodation, if required.

For the list of permitted/available accommodations, see Accommodations.

Additionally, the UH (one-hour) test is available for students with special education needs who cannot participate in the regular (two-hour) assessment. If a student will be participating in the UH test, this information must be communicated to CMEC via the Student Identification Form (see Step 2: Complete Student Identification Form). Note that once all the requirements in step 3 have been completed, no follow-up changes can be made.

For guidance on selecting the appropriate assessment option for students, please see Participation.
 

 

Watch this video to learn about codes, accommodations, and participation options for students with special education needs.