Certification of Eligibility: Accommodations History — Purpose and Process

The Certification of Eligibility: Accommodations History (COE) serves two distinct purposes:

• to provide verification of an individual's use of accommodations either in college or in the workplace
• as a shortcut for approval of certain specific accommodations for particular disabilities

For example, a test taker with a Learning Disability (LD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), psychiatric disabilities and/or physical disabilities who are requesting 50% extended test time or less and/or additional breaks can submit a completed COE without documentation if the documentation meets ETS criteria. When you sign the COE, you are verifying that the documentation on file in your office meets all of our criteria. Please refer to our policy statements for details concerning the documentation criteria.

Using the COE as a shortcut significantly reduces the wait time for a response from ETS. When using the COE in this way, a test taker can expect a decision in 2–3 weeks rather than the 4–6 weeks required for a full review of documentation. If the test taker is eligible to use the COE as a shortcut, remind the student that they should not send documentation, as this will cause a delay in receiving a response.