What Does Embedded Accommodation for the CAASPP Mean? Complete Guide for California Students

If you've ever wondered what does embedded accommodation for the CAASPP mean, you're not alone. California's statewide assessment system offers a broad range of supports built directly into the testing platform itself — these are called embedded accommodations. Unlike paper-based supports that a student might bring to a testing room, embedded accommodations are digital tools already integrated into the Smarter Balanced test delivery engine.

They activate with a single click, requiring no additional materials, no proctor setup, and no separate approval process beyond what is already documented in a student's educational plan. Understanding how these tools work is the first step toward using them effectively.

The California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, better known as CAASPP, includes tests in English Language Arts and Mathematics for students in grades three through eight and grade eleven. Because these assessments are administered entirely on computer, the platform can offer sophisticated supports that paper tests simply cannot replicate. Text-to-speech, digital highlighters, color contrast overlays, answer masking tools, and calculator functionality are just a few examples of features embedded at the system level. For eligible students, these tools level the playing field and allow the assessment to measure academic knowledge rather than a disability or language barrier.

It is important to distinguish between two broad categories of testing supports: universal tools, designated supports, and accommodations. Universal tools are available to every student without any documentation. Designated supports require that an adult — typically a teacher, specialist, or IEP team member — formally assign the support before testing begins.

Accommodations, the most formal tier, are reserved for students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) or Section 504 plans and must be specifically authorized in those legal documents. Embedded accommodations sit within the digital platform, while non-embedded supports exist outside it, such as a scribe, separate testing room, or extended time arranged by school staff.

Parents, students, and educators frequently search for information about caaspp accommodations because navigating the difference between what the platform provides automatically versus what must be requested can feel confusing. The CAASPP contractor, the California Department of Education, and local education agencies each play a role in ensuring eligible students receive the right supports. Knowing which embedded tools exist, who is eligible for each, and how to activate them before test day can prevent last-minute stress and ensure no student misses a support they are entitled to use.

Smarter Balanced, which develops the assessments California uses for ELA and Math, publishes detailed guidance on embedded supports through its usability, accessibility, and accommodations guidelines — commonly called the UAA guidelines. These documents are updated regularly and serve as the authoritative reference for test coordinators and educators. However, the language in these guidelines can be dense and technical. This article translates that technical language into plain English so families, students, and teachers can confidently understand what embedded accommodations are, which ones exist, how to request them, and what to expect on test day.

Students who qualify for accommodations but do not receive them on test day are not just at a disadvantage — their scores may not accurately reflect their true academic performance. Because CAASPP results influence school accountability ratings, course placements, and, at grade eleven, eligibility for the Early Assessment Program that can bypass certain college placement tests, the stakes are real.

Making sure every eligible student has access to every appropriate embedded accommodation is therefore both a legal obligation and a matter of educational equity. This guide walks through everything you need to know, from definitions and eligibility rules to practical steps for activating supports before your next test window opens.

Eligibility for embedded accommodations on the CAASPP is determined by a student's existing documentation and educational programming, not by a one-time test request. Students who have an active Individualized Education Program (IEP) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act are the primary population for formal accommodations.

The IEP team, which includes parents or guardians, the student's general education teacher, a special education representative, and often the student themselves, is responsible for specifying which accommodations the student needs during state assessments. The accommodations listed in the IEP must be ones the student uses routinely during classroom instruction and district assessments — accommodations cannot be introduced for the first time on a state test.

Students with disabilities who do not qualify for an IEP may instead have a Section 504 plan under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Section 504 plans address students whose disabilities substantially limit a major life activity, including learning. Like IEPs, these plans must specifically name each accommodation the student is entitled to receive.

A note from a physician or a parent request alone is not sufficient; the plan must be in place and documented before the test administrator loads the student's settings in TOMS. Parents who believe their child needs an accommodation for the first time should initiate a referral well before the spring testing window opens.

English Learners form a second major population with specific access to embedded designated supports. California identifies EL students through the initial home language survey and annual English Language Proficiency Assessments for California (ELPAC). These students may receive translated test directions, bilingual glossaries for Mathematics, and, in some cases, the Spanish-language version of the CAASPP Math assessment called the Translated Test. Importantly, EL accommodations do not require an IEP or 504 plan — they are assigned through TOMS based on the student's EL status and grade-level designation by school staff.

The concept of "routine use" is a critical eligibility criterion that often surprises families. According to the CAASPP UAA guidelines, an accommodation is appropriate for state testing only if the student uses it regularly during classroom instruction and local assessments throughout the school year.

If a student suddenly receives text-to-speech for the first time on the CAASPP without having practiced with that tool, the accommodation may actually hinder performance rather than help. Test coordinators and IEP teams are expected to document that each accommodation is both needed and practiced. Teachers should be introducing these digital tools into daily instruction long before the spring testing window.

Students who are newly identified — perhaps an IEP was developed in March just weeks before April testing — are still eligible for their designated accommodations as long as the IEP is finalized and entered into TOMS before the student begins testing. There is no minimum duration requirement once documentation is in place.

However, the practical challenge remains: if a student has never used text-to-speech during instruction, activating it for the first time on a high-stakes state assessment is unlikely to provide meaningful benefit. Schools are encouraged to practice with embedded tools throughout the year so that accommodations feel natural and familiar when students sit down to test.

It is also worth noting that accommodations must not change what the assessment measures. This is called the principle of construct validity. For example, text-to-speech can be provided on Math items because reading the problem aloud does not change the mathematical skill being assessed.

However, providing text-to-speech on ELA reading passages at certain grade levels would compromise the construct being measured — reading comprehension — so that particular accommodation is restricted. The California Department of Education and Smarter Balanced publish detailed construct-validity reasoning in their accommodation guidelines, and IEP teams should consult those resources when determining which embedded supports are appropriate for each student.

Understanding the difference between embedded and non-embedded accommodations is essential for anyone navigating CAASPP supports. Embedded accommodations, as discussed throughout this guide, are built directly into the Smarter Balanced test delivery platform. They require no physical setup, no additional staff, and no separate room. Non-embedded accommodations, by contrast, exist outside the digital platform and must be arranged by school personnel.

Common non-embedded accommodations include extended time managed manually by a proctor, testing in a separate small-group room, use of a scribe who writes down the student's dictated answers, use of a word processor for written responses, and administration of the test by a human reader rather than text-to-speech software.

Both embedded and non-embedded accommodations can appear in the same student's IEP or 504 plan, and in many cases students use a combination of both. For example, a student with a significant reading disability might receive TTS as an embedded accommodation for all non-ELA-reading items AND extended time as a non-embedded accommodation that the test proctor manages by noting start and stop times. When documenting and requesting accommodations, IEP teams should carefully distinguish which supports are handled through TOMS and which require school-level logistics such as room assignments, additional proctor staffing, or specialized materials like raised-line paper or physical manipulatives.

One important non-embedded accommodation that bridges both categories is the use of a word processor. Students who have significant fine motor difficulties, orthopedic impairments, or specific learning disabilities affecting writing may be approved to use a separate word processor — typically a laptop or tablet not connected to the internet — for the written-response portions of the CAASPP.

This accommodation is non-embedded because the student is using a separate device, but the resulting text is then transcribed or submitted as the student's official response. Schools must document this process carefully and ensure no spell-check or grammar-check features are active on the word processor during testing.

The California Department of Education maintains a resource called the CAASPP Accessibility Resources webpage, which is updated before each annual testing cycle. This page lists all current universal tools, designated supports, and accommodations with their codes as entered in TOMS. It also provides guidance documents specifically for IEP teams, Section 504 coordinators, EL coordinators, and test site coordinators. Bookmark this resource and check it each fall when preparing accommodation plans for the upcoming spring window, because eligibility rules and available tools can shift slightly from year to year as Smarter Balanced updates the test delivery platform.

A frequently asked question involves students who move between schools or districts mid-year. If a student transfers to a new California public school and arrives with an existing IEP that names CAASPP accommodations, the receiving school is obligated to provide comparable accommodations immediately — they cannot wait for a new IEP meeting to be scheduled.

However, the new school's test coordinator must still enter the accommodations in TOMS before the student takes the assessment. The transferring school should provide the IEP documents promptly, and both schools should communicate directly to ensure nothing falls through the cracks, particularly if the transfer happens close to the spring testing window.

Private school students, homeschool students, and students at non-public schools generally do not take the CAASPP unless they are enrolled in a California public school district. Students with disabilities placed in non-public schools by their IEP team at district expense, however, may take the CAASPP and are entitled to their IEP accommodations. Charter school students take the CAASPP and follow the same accommodation rules as traditional public school students. Parents at any school type who are unsure about their child's testing status or accommodation rights should contact their local education agency's special education director or CAASPP test coordinator for clarification.

Finally, it is worth remembering that accommodations are not the same as modifications. Accommodations change how a student accesses or demonstrates knowledge without changing what is being measured. Modifications, by contrast, change the content or standard itself — for example, giving a student a simpler version of a passage or reducing the number of items on an assessment.

The CAASPP does not allow modifications; all students are assessed against the same California content standards. Accommodations simply ensure the assessment measures what it is designed to measure for students who face barriers that accommodations can legitimately address. This distinction is important for IEP teams to understand clearly.

English Learners represent one of the largest and most diverse groups of students who benefit from embedded language supports on the CAASPP. California enrolls approximately 1.1 million English Learner students across its public schools, and ensuring these students have access to appropriate language supports is both a legal obligation and an educational equity imperative.

The CAASPP offers several embedded language tools specifically designed for EL students, the most widely used of which are the Spanish-language Mathematics test, the bilingual Math glossary, and translated test directions. These supports are available to EL students without requiring an IEP or 504 plan — they are assigned based on EL designation status.

The Spanish-language version of the CAASPP Mathematics assessment, formally called the Translated Test, allows eligible Spanish-speaking EL students in grades three through eight to take the Math test entirely in Spanish or to toggle between the English and Spanish versions of each item during testing.

This embedded feature acknowledges that a student's mathematical reasoning ability should be assessed independent of their English proficiency, provided that Mathematics is the construct being measured. Research consistently shows that Math assessments administered in a student's stronger language produce scores that more accurately reflect actual mathematical competence, making this embedded support a meaningful equity tool rather than simply a testing accommodation.

Bilingual Math glossaries are another embedded language support available to EL students. These glossaries provide translations of key mathematical vocabulary terms in Spanish and other languages, allowing students to look up the meaning of a term directly within the test interface without leaving the testing environment.

The glossary does not define concepts — it only translates terms — which preserves the construct of mathematical reasoning while removing the language barrier created by unfamiliar English vocabulary. Teachers of EL students should spend classroom time throughout the year helping students become comfortable navigating the digital glossary so they can use it efficiently during timed testing conditions.

Translated test directions extend language support to the procedural aspects of the assessment itself. When a student does not fully understand the instructions for a particular item type — such as how to drag and drop answer tokens or how to fill in a table — misunderstanding directions can cause an incorrect response even if the student knows the underlying content.

Translated directions reduce this source of error by ensuring students understand what they are being asked to do. Like other EL supports, translated directions must be assigned in TOMS before testing, and the language of translation must match the student's documented home language or primary language of instruction.

Long-term English Learners — students who have been classified as EL for more than five years — present a unique challenge in accommodation planning. These students often have conversational English fluency but continue to struggle with academic language and complex text. They may not immediately appear to need language supports, yet their performance on academic assessments can be significantly affected by challenging academic vocabulary and complex sentence structures. Schools should carefully consider whether long-term ELs would benefit from continued access to bilingual glossaries and translated directions, and document those decisions in the student's English Learner education plan.

Reclassified Fluent English Proficient (RFEP) students — those who have already exited EL status — are generally no longer eligible for EL-specific language supports on the CAASPP. However, if an RFEP student also has an IEP or 504 plan identifying language processing challenges as a disability-related need, they may still qualify for certain accommodations through that documentation.

The distinction between a language difference and a language processing disability is nuanced and important. IEP teams that include EL expertise can help navigate this boundary accurately, ensuring students receive supports they genuinely need without misattributing language acquisition challenges as disabilities or vice versa.

For students who are both English Learners and students with disabilities — sometimes called EL/SWD students — accommodation planning requires coordination between the school's special education team and its EL coordinator. Both the IEP or 504 plan and the EL programming must be considered together to build a coherent package of embedded and non-embedded supports.

In practice, this means IEP meetings for EL/SWD students should include the EL coordinator and should explicitly address which language supports and which disability-related accommodations the student will access on CAASPP. Documenting this coordination prevents conflicting entries in TOMS and ensures the student's full support package is in place before testing begins.

Preparing students to use embedded accommodations effectively requires intentional planning throughout the school year, not just in the weeks immediately before the spring testing window. The single most impactful action a teacher or special education provider can take is to introduce each approved embedded tool during regular classroom instruction early in the school year.

If a student's IEP authorizes text-to-speech for mathematics, that tool should be active on every digital math assignment and quiz the student completes from September onward. Familiarity breeds efficiency — students who have used TTS hundreds of times before the CAASPP can navigate it instinctively, while students encountering it for the first time on test day may spend valuable minutes figuring out how it works.

Technology practice sessions are a highly effective preparation strategy. Most schools have access to the CAASPP practice tests and training tests available at caaspp.org at no cost. These training tests use the same interface as the actual assessment, including all embedded universal tools and, when configured correctly, designated supports and accommodations.

Test coordinators can set up student accounts in the practice environment with the same accommodation settings the student will have on the real test. Running two or three timed, full-length practice sessions in this environment — ideally in the same room and on the same device the student will use for the real test — builds the muscle memory and cognitive comfort that translate directly to better test-day performance.

For students who use assistive technology in their daily schoolwork, the preparation process must also include compatibility testing between the AT device and the CAASPP secure browser. The secure browser is a locked-down testing interface that prevents students from accessing other applications or the internet during testing. Some screen readers, Braille displays, and alternative input devices require specific configuration to work within the secure browser environment.

The California Department of Education provides a list of tested and approved AT configurations on its CAASPP technology page. Schools should not assume that because a device works with classroom software it will automatically work with the secure browser — this testing must be done explicitly and well in advance.

Communication between home and school is another often-overlooked preparation step. Parents and guardians play an important role in supporting students with accommodations. When families understand which tools are activated and why, they can reinforce practice at home, help students feel confident and normalized about using supports, and troubleshoot any concerns about the accommodation itself.

Schools should send home a simple, jargon-free summary of each student's CAASPP accommodations, written in the family's home language if possible. A brief family information night or a recorded video explaining how embedded tools work can also reduce testing anxiety for students who feel self-conscious about using supports their classmates may not use.

Educators who are new to CAASPP accommodation processes should prioritize attending the California Department of Education's free training webinars, which are offered each fall before the testing cycle begins. These webinars cover the most recent updates to the UAA guidelines, walk through the TOMS entry process step by step, and include time for Q&A with CDE accessibility specialists.

The California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress website also hosts archived webinars for staff who cannot attend live sessions. Many county offices of education additionally offer regional trainings that are tailored to local contexts and include hands-on practice entering accommodations in TOMS with real student scenarios.

One practical tip that experienced test coordinators universally recommend is to conduct a TOMS audit approximately two weeks before the testing window opens. Export the accommodation data for every student in your grade levels and compare it side by side with the current IEP and 504 documentation on file. Look for students whose IEPs reference CAASPP accommodations that have not yet been entered in TOMS.

Look for students who have been entered with accommodations that are no longer in their current IEP. Look for students whose EL status has changed — either newly identified or recently reclassified — and update their language support settings accordingly. This two-week buffer gives your team enough time to correct errors before the test window without scrambling at the last minute.

Finally, remember that CAASPP accommodations are not a secret or a source of shame. They represent the educational system's commitment to fair and accurate measurement for every student. When teachers frame embedded tools as powerful technology that helps the test show what a student truly knows, students are more likely to use them confidently and effectively.

A growth mindset around accommodations — treating TTS, color contrast, and bilingual glossaries as smart tools rather than crutches — shapes the culture of a testing program in ways that directly benefit student performance and well-being. Every student deserves a testing experience that accurately reflects their knowledge, and embedded accommodations are a key part of making that a reality.