Provincial Assessments in Alternate Format

Current information on the Adjudication process for BC’s Provincial Assessments can be found on the Ministry of Education's website 

Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) for Grades 4 & 7 - Braille & Large Print

The 2023/24 FSA will be administered to all Grades 4 and 7 students enrolled in B.C. public and independent schools, including distributed learning programs from October 2 to November 10, 2023.

If your school has Grade 4 or Grade 7 students who will require large print format or Braille in the upcoming school year (2023-2024), please complete and return the special materials request form included below. Special format requests should be in alignment with what is used to support a student with a visual impairment based on what is used on a regular basis for in-class assessments as documented in the student's IEP. If you require further information, please contact educ.fsascore@gov.bc.ca.

SPECIAL MATERIALS REQUEST FORM: Complete and return the form to the Ministry of Education and Child Care by June 9, 2023 via email at educ.fsascore@gov.bc.ca.

Note: If adjustments such as adding or removing students need to be made after you submit this form, please send any additions or cancellations by September 8, 2023.

2023-2024 FSA Special Materials Request Form

Braille & Large Print Format  - Provincial Assessments

If you are the designated contact for placing adjudication requests for your students who use braille or large print, please download this form:

2022-2023 Request for Special Format Assessments

Please note: e-Text has been added as a supported format for LTE10 and LTE12.  

There are now three exam/assessment sessions offered for students using Braille or Large Print and the request deadlines are:

  • For the January 2023 session: Wednesday, October 5, 2022
  • For the April 2023 session: Monday, January 16, 2023
  • For the June 2023 session: Friday, February 24, 2023

Please Note - there are changes to the form submission process:

The forms are no longer submitted to PRCVI. Instead, the request form is now to be submitted directly to the Adjudication Coordinator at the Ministry of Education and Child Care using one of the following methods:

Scan and email it to: EDUC.Adjudication@gov.bc.ca    

or   

Mail to:
Ministry of Education and Child Care
PO Box 9887 Stn Prov Govt
Victoria, BC, V8W 9T6

ATTN: ADJUDICATION COORDINATOR (INCLUSIVE EDUCATION)

If you have not received an email confirmation from Ministry of Education and Child Care within 3 business days of sending request, contact the Adjudication Team at inclusive.education@gov.bc.ca

Current information on the Adjudication process for BC’s Provincial Assessments is available online or you can email EDUC.Adjudication@gov.bc.ca.  

General Information about Assessments in Alternate Format

More information on the current Provincial Assessments can be found on the Ministry of Education and Child Care website. 

PRCVI sends out Assessment application reminders a few times per year and we strongly recommend that the district or independent school Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments be directly involved in the alternate format assessment or FSA request process for their students. We receive a few last-minute requests for each assessment session and sometimes it may be too late to send the necessary assessment for the scheduled date and time needed.

In order for a student to be eligible to receive an alternate format assessment, they must be registered with PRCVI. We have been receiving a lot of large print requests for students with learning difficulties, and these students usually do not meet the criteria to be registered with PRCVI for vision support.

Even if your students are not writing until June, we must receive the request forms by the October deadline, so we can anticipate what student orders we need to fill for the Released Braille and Large Print Assessments that are usually sent in early December.

You can only request one format of an Assessment for your student, so for example, it is not possible to request an electronic version and also a separate booklet of tactile or large print images.

Braille format assessments have often been adapted, and they are different from the regular print booklets. The student should respond to the multiple-choice and open-ended questions either on their computer or on their braillewriter, or the school may transcribe the student’s braille responses in writing (verbatim) onto a separate sheet of paper. They should not fill out the computer-fed bubble answer sheets that are issued with the regular assessment booklets.

The braille format or large print format assessment(s) are shipped separately from the regular print ones and all of these assessments must be kept in a secure place until administered. Please ensure all staff directly involved in administering these alternate format assessments are aware of these procedures.

It is important that the braille format assessment is returned to PRCVI, even if the student has chosen not to write it. Both the braille format assessment and the student’s written open-ended and multiple-choice responses must be packaged separately from the regular and large print copies and returned to PRCVI. 

To return the responses and the braille assessments, please email shipping@prcvi.org with the following information for the courier pick up:

  • Student’s name
  • Pick up address and phone number
  • Name of the person responsible for the pickup
  • Location of where the package is held (i.e., Front Office or Shipping)

 

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