Standardized testing: testing accommodations.

Existing law imposes various requirements on a test sponsor or test agency, as defined, with respect to the administration of standardized tests for purposes of postsecondary education. Existing law provides that a test sponsor that intentionally violates these provisions is liable for a civil penalty not to exceed $750 for each violation. This bill would require the test sponsor of the Law School Admission Test to provide testing accommodations to a test subject who is disabled, as specified. The bill would require the process for determining whether to grant an accommodation to be made public, the outcome of the request to be conveyed to the requester within a reasonable amount of time, and the reasons for a denial of a request for accommodation to be stated to the requester in writing. The bill would require that test sponsor to establish a timely appeals process when a request is denied and to clearly post on the Law School Admission Test Internet Web site information regarding refund policies for individuals whose requests for accommodation are denied. The bill would prohibit that test sponsor from notifying a test score recipient that the score of any test subject was obtained by a subject who received an accommodation, and would prohibit that test sponsor from withholding any information that would lead a test score recipient to deduce that a score was earned by a subject who received an accommodation. Under this bill, an intentional violation of these requirements would subject a test sponsor to the above civil penalty.