ELPAC Accessibility Resources & Accommodations

California sorts the accessibility resources allowed on its state tests into three categories, based on who can use them and how they are assigned. The official list for each school year is the California Assessment Accessibility Resources Matrix, and it changes a little from year to year.

Tier 1: Universal Tools — Available to every student, chosen by the student as needed.

Tier 2: Designated Supports — Available to any student when an educator or team of educators decides the student needs them, with input from the parent or guardian and the student as appropriate, or when they are written into an IEP or Section 504 plan.

Tier 3: Accommodations — Available to students whose individualized education program (IEP) or Section 504 plan specifies them.

Highlighter: Lets a student mark words or sentences in a passage to keep track of key details.

Zoom: Makes text and pictures on the screen larger or smaller, or returns them to the default size.

Strikethrough: Lets a student cross out answer choices they have ruled out. On the computer-based test it is available from grade 2.

Digital Notepad: An on-screen space for jotting notes about a question. Scratch paper is also allowed.

Expandable Passages: Enlarges a passage to fill more of the screen, which makes longer texts easier to read.

Breaks: A student can take breaks during testing, within the rules the test examiner follows for pausing.

Translated Test Directions: The general test directions can be read to the student in their primary language by a bilingual adult, using translated directions the state publishes in many languages, including Spanish, Vietnamese, Arabic, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tagalog, Korean and Punjabi. Directions can also be given in American Sign Language or Manually Coded English. The test questions and passages stay in English, because English is what the test measures.

Pause or Replay Audio: Lets the listening recordings be paused or replayed. For the 2026–27 school year the state made this designated support available for Listening to students at every grade from kindergarten to grade 12. A student who has not been assigned it hears each recording once.

Masking: Lets a student block out parts of the screen to focus on one question or paragraph at a time.

Separate Setting: Testing in a different room or at a different time, for example individually or in a small group, to reduce distraction.

Noise Buffers: Headphones or other devices that block out sound around the student. Other designated supports include color contrast, print size, magnification and amplification.

English learners who also have a disability, sometimes called dually identified students, use the accommodations that their IEP or 504 plan specifies for the ELPAC. The IEP or 504 team decides which ones are appropriate.

Speech-to-Text: Lets a student dictate a written response, either with the speech-to-text built into the testing system or with the student's own assistive technology.

Scribe: A trained adult writes down the student's dictated answers word for word. On the ELPAC this is an accommodation for the Writing domain.

American Sign Language: Listening content can be presented through an embedded ASL video, and a student can receive questions and respond in ASL or Manually Coded English for Listening and Speaking.

Braille and Large Print: Braille is available in embossed and refreshable forms, and a large-print special form is available as an accommodation where one exists.

If no listed resource gives a student access to a domain, the IEP or 504 team can request an unlisted resource through the school, or, as a last resort, decide that the student is exempt from that domain.

Designated supports and accommodations that are built into the testing system have to be set up for the student in California's Test Operations Management System (TOMS) before the student starts testing. Schools usually do this ahead of the testing window, so it is worth raising any questions well before test day.

A good question for your child's teacher or IEP case manager is: 'Which designated supports or accommodations will my child have on the ELPAC, and are they the same ones they use in class?'

Students should try their assigned tools on the official practice or training tests beforehand, so they are comfortable using them on test day. Resources are meant to match what a student already uses in daily instruction, not to be added for the first time on the test.