Student Eligibility and Assessment Participation

Participation Requirements

Initial ELPAC

All students in K–12 (through age twenty-one), whose primary language is a language other than English, as indicated on their HLS, must take the Initial ELPAC to determine whether they are EL or IFEP students. Per ELPAC regulations, testing and scoring must be done within 30 calendar days after they are first enrolled in a California public school or 60 calendar days prior to instruction, but not before July 1. To administer the computer-based Initial ELPAC, all eligible students must have an SSID created in CALPADS with an ELAS of TBD and a primary language other than English or ASL in the appropriate CALPADS fields.

A student must log on to all four domains to be counted as tested and meet participation requirements. Subsequently, an SSR will be produced for the student.

In addition, only students with documented accessibility needs for a braille, large-print, or general PPT emergency form in their IEP or Section 504 plan or schools that require PPT materials because of an emergency should test on the Initial ELPAC PPT emergency forms. All requests for PPT emergency form materials must be approved by the CDE prior to the LEA receiving paper materials. The LEA ELPAC coordinator must request these materials by completing the CAASPP and ELPAC Special Request for Paper Exams web form.

Summative ELPAC

The Summative ELPAC measures an EL student’s progress toward ELP. Refer to the Differences Between the Initial ELPAC and the Summative ELPAC subsection of this manual for a side-by-side view of the assessments.

All students in K–12 (through age twenty-one), who are identified as EL students and who are enrolled in a California public school between February 1 (or the following Monday if February 1 falls on a weekend) and May 31 (or the Friday before that if May 31 falls on a weekend), must take the Summative ELPAC. All students classified as ELs in CALPADS must continue to be tested annually during the Summative ELPAC administration window until they are reclassified as fluent English proficient on the basis of the guidelines for reclassification established by the CDE. This includes ELs with disabilities. Confirm that the LEA’s CALPADS data is current before testing. Only students who are ELs should be administered the Summative ELPAC.

In addition, only students with documented accessibility needs for a braille, large-print, or general PPT emergency form in their IEP or Section 504 plan or schools that require PPT materials because of an emergency should test on the Summative ELPAC PPT emergency forms. All requests for PPT emergency form materials must be approved by the CDE prior to the LEA receiving paper materials. The LEA ELPAC coordinator must request these materials by completing the CAASPP and ELPAC Special Request for Paper Exams web form.

Nonpublic, Nonsectarian Schools

LEA ELPAC coordinators for each LEA that has assigned students to NPSs on the basis of IEP team recommendations will continue to be responsible for ordering special version testing materials (i.e., braille and large print), sending them to the NPSs, receiving the special version materials back from the NPSs, and returning them to the testing contractor.

Accessibility Resources

The computer-based platform of the ELPAC has provided a variety of innovative universal tools that are embedded in the TDS, as well as designated supports and accommodations to support all students, including those with special assessment needs. For more information about these accessibility resources and to assist ELPAC users in implementing them, the following resources are available:

On the basis of ongoing evaluation of testing data, grades three through twelve students are taking a longer time to enter responses in the Writing domain than anticipated. To minimize the testing burden placed on students, consider using the TRCS tool to evaluate whether a student could benefit from having a DIA resource available to assist with typing Writing item responses. Access the TRCS tool on the Technology Resources and Secure Browsers web page. Related documents—the How to Use the Technology Readiness Checker for Students and Technology Readiness Checker for Students Support Guidelines web documents—are available on the Technology Resources and Secure Browsers web page.

In addition, LEA ELPAC coordinators or site ELPAC coordinators can request unlisted resources, which are non-embedded supports that may be provided if specified in an eligible student’s IEP or Section 504 plan. Use will be granted only upon approval by the CDE. However, if the unlisted resource changes the construct of the assessment, the student will be given the LOSS for the domain in which the unlisted resource was used.

Requests for unlisted resources may be submitted in TOMS via the [Students] navigation tab, [View & Edit] action tab, View & Edit Students screen, and then the [Unlisted Resources] tab. Requests must be made a minimum of 10 business days before the student’s first day of testing.

Additional accessibility resources are available on the CAASPP & ELPAC Accessibility Resources web page as well as on the CDE ELPAC web page.