Sensitive Responses
Taking Appropriate Action with Student Responses or Student Actions That Cause Concern
Throughout the test administration process, student safety is always the primary consideration.
During testing, TEs may encounter student actions that disrupt the test administration and may endanger the student or others. In addition, it is possible that TEs will encounter student responses to questions or notes on scratch paper that necessitate some action to ensure student safety.
For TEs, ELPAC security protocols make it clear that TEs are not permitted to review student responses in the testing interface or students’ notes on scratch paper. However, during or after administering assessments, a TE might unexpectedly encounter a student response that raises sufficient concern to warrant adult action, including action as a mandated reporter. Topics that may require the TE to take action include, but are not limited to, student references to:
- Suicide
- Criminal activity
- Alcohol or drug use
- Extreme depression
- Extreme violence or threats of violence
- Sexual assault or physical abuse
- Self-harm or intent to harm others
- Neglect
- Bullying of individuals or groups of students
Collecting Information
Prior to administration, each TE should have a thorough understanding of policies for the school, LEA, California, or any combination of these regarding documentation of student actions or concerning responses during a secure test event. The TE should document as much information as possible in accordance with policies for the school, LEA, CDE, or any combination of these.
Escalating Information
Should the TE encounter a sensitive situation while supervising the test session, the TE should immediately escalate this concern in accordance with policies and procedures for the school, LEA, CDE, or any combination of these.
Crisis Alert Response System Process
As part of the process for scoring the Writing assessments for the ELPAC, readers may come across student responses that warrant an LEA’s immediate attention. Examples include responses in which students indicate or suggest that they are experiencing or have experienced some kind of physical or emotional abuse or neglect, that they may harm themselves or others, or that they are experiencing severe distress. LEAs are notified of such instances through the CARS incident reporting process in TOMS.
Upon notification that a student’s response requires attention, TOMS notifies the primary LEA ELPAC coordinator and superintendent via email that an alert paper has been identified. Upon receipt, one of the LEA representatives is required to acknowledge the CARS incident by logging on to TOMS, accessing the CARS function, and selecting the [Acknowledge] or [Acknowledge and Archive] button.
If acknowledgement is not made within three business hours, TOMS sends a reminder email that there has been a CARS incident logged and will continue to send a reminder until the CARS incident has been acknowledged. Note that reminders are sent on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. This process provides the LEA with information in a timely manner and ensures security of the CARS process.
Details of the CARS incident, including information about the student and the response or action that caused the case to be flagged for CARS, can be found by selecting the [CARS] tab from the menu bar in TOMS.