Federal law requires that all students identified as English Learners in K-12 public schools, including those with significant cognitive disabilities, take the State’s annual English language proficiency assessment in order to monitor their progress in acquiring academic English.
The Alternate-ACCESS assessment (ALT-ACCESS) is available to students with IEPs who have a significant cognitive disability that considerably impacts their intellectual functioning. To qualify for the ALT-ACCESS, students who are multilingual with an IEP need to either:
- Have already qualified for the alternate general assessment. (Grades 3 and higher)
- Have been determined to be significantly cognitively challenged by the student’s IEP team. Ideally, an EL instructor is part of this team or at a minimum a participant in the decision-making process. (K-2)
For more information on identifying if a student is eligible for the alternate assessment, please refer to the:
- Vermont Alternate Assessment Student Eligibility Criteria Checklist
- WIDA Accessibility & Accommodations Manual (page 21)
Vermont is a supporting partner of the WIDA/Minnesota Advancing ALTELLA: Alternate Assessment Redesign collaboration (funded by the USDOE). All students who qualify for the ALT-ELP Assessment in K-12 will be participating in a field test during the 2022-2023 school year.