Autistic Boy Takes Standardized Test With Service Dog, What Happened Next Was Heartbreaking

A new testing outrage in Florida involves an autistic student required to take the state-mandated standardized test at a neighborhood public school. Florida's testing outrages just keep on coming. Despite pleas from families, Florida keeps insisting that severely disabled students take the standardized test.

According to The Washington Post, last month, Paula Drew asked the Florida Education Department for a standardized-testing exemption for her daughter. Madison Drew, 15-year-old, has cerebral palsy and is unable to speak due to complications related to her condition. The department denied the mother's request.

Another case involves a boy named Michael who was born without the cognitive part of his brain.  Despite his condition, the Florida Education Department asked Michael to take an alternative state-mandated standardized test. After the publicity about his condition, Michael later won an exemption.

Ethan Rediske had cerebral palsy and was born with severe brain damage. The boy passed away at age 11, in 2014. His mother, Andrea, was forced by the Florida Education Department to provide documents proving that Ethan was unable to participate in the state-mandated test while the boy was lay dying in a morphine-induced coma.

The new story involves a 9-year old autistic boy and his Pinellas County parent, Elizabeth Shea. The boy attends the online Florida Virtual School. He was required to take the state-mandated standardized test and he recently went to do so with his service dog.

His mom has become a certified dog handler because the autistic boy is too young to handle the dog alone. Ms. Shea accompanied her son to the test site. The autistic boy has an Individual Education Plan (IEP), but the dog apparently wasn't part of those services. The school's testing administrators did not allow Shea to stay in the testing room with the dog. In a heartbreaking incident, her son was left in tears and unable to take the exam.

According to an article published by Ferrara Fiorenza, a New York law firm, in a child's case the person who handles the dog is considered an assistive device and the service dogs are generally allowed by law to be anywhere the person to which it is assigned is.