In response to your "scribing" story
As a fellow parent of a 10-year-old special-needs child enroled in the district, I fully agree with the parents, and find this appalling. I've heard of the practice of scribing before, however it's not something that should be done on a FSA test. As much as I don't agree with the FSA, the point of it is to test the student's ability. The whole point of having it as a written test to begin with, is to test to actual ability of a student to write, along with testing grammar, and spelling.
If it was supposed to be a verbal test, they would of asked the questions to the child. Further to this, if he was labelled as special needs, he shouldn't be taking the test to begin with, as it's not a fair assessment of the academic program in the school, as the school can not be held fault for the learning disability of the special-needs students.
If the student in question did the test as a personal challenge, that would be fine.
But from the sounds of it, it was handed in for marking.
I fully encourage special needs students to be fully included in all classroom activities. However, somewhere along the way from teacher's assistant, to teacher, to principal, to school board, this student should not be handing in a test he could not write.
Scott Stratton
Prince George
