Classroom accommodations for special needs: what an Indian school can change

An accommodation changes the route, not the destination. A child with dyslexia who has the questions read aloud in a science test is still tested on the same science. A child with ADHD who sits near the teacher and gets a movement break is still expected to learn the same chapter. The marks mean the same thing as everyone else's.

A modification changes the destination. A child with an intellectual disability in class 5 might work on number bonds to twenty while the class does fractions, and be tested on that. A child might have fewer chapters, simpler questions or different objectives altogether. That can be exactly right for the child, but the marks now measure something different, and that has consequences later.

A useful test: if the child did the task with the change, would they have met the same expectation as their classmates? If yes, it is an accommodation. If the task itself is easier or different, it is a modification.

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 defines reasonable accommodation in Section 2(y) as "necessary and appropriate modification and adjustments, without imposing a disproportionate or undue burden in a particular case", so that persons with disabilities can exercise their rights equally with others. Section 2(h) says discrimination includes denial of reasonable accommodation. Section 16 asks schools funded or recognised by the government to endeavour to provide reasonable accommodation according to the individual's requirements.

Section 17(i) asks governments to make suitable modifications in the curriculum and examination system, naming extra time, a scribe and exemption from second and third language courses. Sections 16 and 17 speak of children with disabilities generally, not only those with a benchmark (40 per cent) disability. ADHD is not named in the Act, so for a child with ADHD alone the school's own inclusion policy usually decides. This is information at the time of writing (September 2026), not legal advice; the RPwD Act and your child's education covers it in more detail.

Most accommodations cost a school little. They take a teacher's attention and a few minutes of planning. These are the ones families ask for most often in Indian classrooms.

• Seating near the teacher and the board, away from the door, the window and the fan's noise.
• Printed notes or a photo of the board, so that the child listens instead of copying.
• Instructions given in short steps, repeated to the child, and written on the board.
• Extra time in class work and unit tests.
• A reader for test questions, or oral answers where writing hides what the child knows.
• Movement or calming breaks at agreed times, with a signal the child can use.
• A visual timetable and warning before changes, such as a substitute teacher or a cancelled PT period.
• Reduced copying and fewer written questions, with the same learning goal.
• A quiet place to take tests, or noise-reducing headphones where the school allows them.

Few children need all of these. Two or three that match the child's difficulty, used consistently, do more than a long list nobody remembers by the second term. For the classroom side of ADHD in particular, see ADHD classroom strategies.

The table gives examples to discuss with the school's special educator and the child's therapists. It is not a prescription: two children with the same diagnosis can need quite different support, and the professionals who know the child should shape the final list.

Notice how often the right-hand column says rarely. For most children with a learning disability, ADHD or autism, accommodations are enough, and modifications should not be the first answer to a child who is struggling.

A modified curriculum is right when a child cannot yet reach the class's objectives even with good accommodations and teaching, and continuing to test them against those objectives only produces failure. This is more common for children with an intellectual disability, Down syndrome or significant developmental delay than for children with a specific learning disability, whose understanding is usually at the class level even when reading or writing is not.

The decision should be made with the special educator and, where they are involved, the child's psychologist, and written down: which subjects are modified, what the child will learn instead, and how progress will be measured. It should not be permanent by default. Some children move back towards the class curriculum in one subject while staying on modified objectives in another, and the plan should allow for that.

Board exams in class 10 and 12 test the board's syllabus. The boards allow accommodations, such as extra time, a scribe or a reader, and some subject choices, but they do not set an easier paper for a child whose school curriculum was modified. A child who has been on modified maths since class 4 will not be ready for the standard class 10 maths paper just because class 9 has arrived.

At the time of writing (September 2026), CBSE allows candidates registered with a disability extra time of 20 minutes per hour, a scribe or reader, and a scheme for the 2027 exams in which they take one compulsory language and need not take Mathematics or Science. The category must be recorded when the child is registered in class 9. CBSE exam concessions for learning disabilities covers the detail; confirm the current rules with the school.

For a child on a heavily modified curriculum, a different route may fit better. NIOS lets every learner choose five subjects with one or two languages, and Mathematics is not compulsory for anyone. NIOS and homeschooling explains what that route involves. Start these conversations in class 7 or 8, not in the middle of class 9.

An accommodation that lives only in a conversation with one teacher disappears when that teacher changes. The aim is a written list that every teacher sees.

1. Gather what you have: reports from the psychologist, therapists or developmental paediatrician, and recent school work.
2. Write down the two or three places the child struggles most, in school terms: copying, reading test questions, finishing on time.
3. Ask the class teacher or inclusion coordinator for a meeting, and send your notes beforehand.
4. Agree specific accommodations, and for each one, who provides it and in which lessons and tests.
5. Ask for any modification to be named separately, with the subjects and objectives it affects.
6. Ask for all of it to be recorded in the IEP, and for a copy.
7. Agree a review date, usually at the end of the term.

What an IEP is explains the rest of that document. Keep the requests specific. 'Extra time' is vague; 'ten extra minutes in each unit test, in a quiet room, with a reader for the questions' is something a school can actually deliver.

An accommodation that is first used in a board exam hall is a risk. A child who has never worked with a scribe does not know how to dictate an answer, and a child who has never had extra time does not know how to use it. Cambridge International says arrangements should reflect a candidate's normal way of working, and the IB expects students to practise them in class tests and mocks. CISCE recommends its concessions for internal exams too. Ask your school to use the same accommodations in unit tests and pre-boards; preparing a child to use a scribe, reader or extra time shows how.

Then review every term. Some accommodations become unnecessary as a child grows; others become necessary as the work gets harder in middle school. Ask at each review which accommodations were actually used, which helped and which were forgotten. A shadow teacher in class can make sure agreed accommodations happen in each lesson; Special Minds contacts the school before placing one and places a shadow teacher only with the school's agreement.