Need extra time for the bar exam? You're not alone
Accommodations allowing candidates to take more time to complete the bar exam are surging around the country, with more than one in eight test-takers in California and more than one in seven in Washington, D.C., granted extra time. (Image from Shutterstock)
Accommodations allowing candidates to take more time to complete the bar exam are surging around the country, with more than one in eight test-takers in California and more than one in seven in Washington, D.C., granted extra time.
The Wall Street Journal has the story.
In 2016, 4% of California’s bar examinees received accommodations, while 14% did for last July’s administration, according to the story.
The trend is reaching the bar exam following years of increases of high schools and colleges students with diagnoses for disabilities such as ADHD, according to the story.
Two factors are driving the requests, Perry Zirkel, a disability law scholar and a former dean at Lehigh University, told the Wall Street Journal: increasing rates of diagnoses and the 2008 amendments to the Americans With Disabilities Act that changed eligibility, a move based in part to help disabled veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with conditions such as PTSD.
While he acknowledges the diagnoses and the need for truly disabled students, Zirkel told the Wall Street Journal that he worries that wealthy families can game the system, paying thousands of dollars for private disability assessments.
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