Azalea County has one of the largest school districts in its state. It

Question

Azalea County has one of the largest school districts in its state. It also has one of the highest proportions of students with special needs in the nation.

Many students in Azalea County receive accommodations called “504s,” named for section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. These accommodations are provided to students with physical disabilities and to students with cognitive or learning impairments that do not significantly impact their ability to learn in class. Students with 504s are taught the same curricula and assessed by the same grading standards as is the general student body, but they are provided with various forms of assistance, such as text readers for students with visual impairments or preferential seating for students with attention-deficit disorders.

Students with learning, cognitive, or emotional impairments that significantly affect their ability to learn receive Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), which are characterized by alternative curricula and grading standards. Whenever possible, Azalea County IEPs are “inclusive,” meaning that all accommodations take place in a standard classroom. However, students with the most severe needs are “mainstreamed,” learning only select subjects in general-education classes and spending most of the day in separate special-needs classrooms.In Azalea County, the direct expenses of any accommodation are paid from a county-wide fund. Nonetheless, individual schools in Azalea County are responsible for the administrative costs of designing, certifying, and monitoring their students’ 504s and IEPs. An Azalea school’s budget allows for the administration of an unlimited number of 504s. It also allows for the administration of 12 inclusive IEPs and 4 mainstreamed IEPs per 100 total students.There are no educational requirements to work as an assistant to a student on a 504 plan in the Azalea County School District. Many assistants to students with mobility restrictions do not have high school diplomas.

All aides who provide assistance to students with must have college degrees. Additionally, these aides must complete a special six-month certification, unless they majored in education.

Azalea County teachers must have a master’s degree. Teachers are occasionally allowed to begin working for the district while still enrolled in their master's programs, but this exception does not apply to teachers of children with special needs; these teachers must complete additional education and observation requirements after earning their degrees but before teaching.

t0nyt0ny · Answer

Any solutions for these?

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

1. For each of the following scenarios, select Yes if the administrative costs of the accommodation described are within the school’s budget, on the basis of the given information. Otherwise, select No.

Explanation

Statement 1:  Approach strategically: Consult the Special Education tab and review the distinction between 504s and IEPs. Accommodations for students with physical disabilities that don't affect their ability to learn are 504s. Interpreters for students with hearing impairments would fall under 504s. The school's budget is said to “allow for the administration of an unlimited number of 504s” (Budget tab). Also note that although the payment of interpreters may come from the county, the task in these questions is to determine whether the administrative cost can be shown to be within the school’s budget—and it is.

The answer is Yes

Statement 2:  Approach strategically: This is a change in the grading standard and therefore, according to the first tab, must be part of an IEP. The ratio 120 out of 1,000 is the same as 12 out of 100. Since the budget allows for 12 out of every 100 students to receive inclusive IEPs, this scenario is possible within the budget.

The answer is Yes

Statement 3:  Approach strategically: This is describing mainstreamed IEP students as described in the Special Education tab, because they spend most of their day in a special-needs classroom. A school's budget can pay for 4 out of 100 students (Budget tab). The ratio 30 out of 500 (which can be simplified to 6 out of 100) exceeds that ratio, and therefore the school does not have sufficient funds budgeted for the administrative cost for these mainstreamed IEP students.

The answer is No

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

2. For each of the following scenarios, select Possible if the described scenario is possible in the Azalea County School District, on the basis of the given information. Otherwise, select Not possible.

Explanation

Statement 1:  Approach strategically: Buying textbooks in Braille would be a 504 accommodation. You’re told that “the direct expenses of any accommodation are paid for from a county-wide fund,” not the school's fund (Budget tab). Schools are only responsible for the administrative cost. Therefore, it is entirely Possible that a school orders books it wouldn't be able to afford because the county will pay for those books. In fact, the school’s budget is irrelevant here.

The answer is Possible

Statement 2:  Approach strategically: An accommodation certification that could exceed the school’s budget would have to be an IEP as opposed to a 504, since the number of IEPs is limited and the number of 504s is unlimited. Alternative homework is an example of the “altered curricula” that characterize IEPs. Therefore, it is Possible that the student’s certification would exceed the budget, if the school already had the maximum number of students with IEPs that fit within the budget

The answer is Possible

Statement 3:  Approach strategically: Teachers in Azalea County are required to have master’s degrees. Although some teachers are allowed to teach before having completed their master's degree, that exemption does not apply when teaching students with special needs, such as this student. This scenario is Not possible.

The answer is Not possible

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

3. Suppose in an Azalea County school with a total student population of 316, there are 12 students with IEPs who are mainstreamed. Based on the information provided, select the answer that must be true about this group of 12 students.

Explanation

The question describes a group of 12 mainstreamed IEP students in a school of 316 students and asks what must be true about these IEP students. Use the information from the tabs to judge the soundness of each answer choice:

(A):  Tab 1 states that mainstreamed students learn only select subjects in general-education classes and spend most of the day in separate special-needs classrooms. However, it never states that any mainstreamed students spend the entire day in special-needs classes. This statement does not have to be true, so eliminate it.

(B):  Tab 2 states that a school’s budget allows for 4 mainstreamed students for every 100 students; that’s a ratio of 1:25 mainstreamed to total students; 12:316 is lower than this, so the school’s budget does cover all of the 12 students. Eliminate.

(C):  Since Tab 1 states that mainstreamed students are IEP students and that IEP students are taught under altered curricula and grading standards, this statement is false; eliminate.

(D):  Tab 3 states that all aides who assist IEP students must complete a special six-month certification, unless they majored in education. Thus, it’s possible that at least some of these aides have not completed the special certification, so this statement doesn't have to be true. Eliminate.

Answer: E

Aniket179 · Answer

Sajjad1994  for question-2, Part-II. the official answer is "Not Possible" but for quiz the marked Correct answer is "possible". I believe the answer needs to be edited.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

The correct answer is:

Possible, Possible, and Not possible. It was a typo in the Official explanation, not in the question. I have fixed it now.

Thank you!

gullyboy09 · Answer

1. a) A 250-student middle school requires 32 sign-language interpreters for students with hearing impairments. - How do we know this hearing impairment not affecting their learning ability. Passage says people with physical disabilities that do not impact learning abilities (it's not saying physical disabilities does not impact learning abilities, but those physical disabilities who does not impact learning abilities). Now here no clue is given, they might be in IEPs then for every 100 we can have 12 only, i.e. 30 for 250.

b) 1,000-student high school has 120 students who receive an exemption from the oral presentations that are normally part of final grading. - Similarly as above, they might be mainstreamed too.

b) 1,000-student high school has 120 students who receive an exemption from the oral presentations that are normally part of final grading. - Similarly as above, they might be mainstreamed too.

MinhHoang31 · Answer

For question 2, I got statement 2 wrong as not possible
I asked myself "is it possible for the school to seek additional funding when it exceeds its budget?" instead of "is it possible for the certification costs to exceed the school's budget?". Since the passage doesn't address the question I asked myself, so I chose Not Possible

I mean what can I do differently the next time to not incorrectly decode the question. Is there a reliable technique for identifying which part of a statement caries the logical weight that needs to be verified against the data?

egmat · Answer

Hi gullyboy09,

Your instinct to ask "504 or IEP?" is exactly the right question to be asking on these. The thing to fix is  what  decides that classification: it's the  kind of accommodation , not your read of how severe the impairment might be.

The Special Education tab draws the line by what the student receives, not by the disability itself:

504  = same curriculum, same grading standards, plus assistance (text readers, preferential seating, interpreters).
 IEP  =  altered  curriculum and/or  altered  grading standards.

So you classify each scenario by asking one thing:  is the curriculum or grading being changed?

Part (a) - the 32 interpreters

A sign-language interpreter is a  form of assistance . The hearing-impaired student is still taught the same material and graded the same way - they're just given access to it. That is the textbook definition of a 504. You don't need to know whether the impairment "affects learning" in some abstract sense; the scenario tells you the accommodation is pure assistance, with no change to curriculum or grading. Since the Budget tab allows  unlimited  504s, the cost is covered, so the answer is  Yes .

Part (b) - the 120 exemptions from oral presentations

Here something  is  being changed: the grading standard. Oral presentations are normally part of final grading, and these students are exempted from them. A changed grading standard is the signature of an  IEP , so these are inclusive IEPs - and the budget allows  12  per  100 , i.e.  120  per  1,000 . Exactly  120  fits, so the answer is  Yes .

The trap on both is reaching for severity ("maybe they're really IEPs") when the scenario already hands you the deciding fact: whether the curriculum/grading changed. Read for that signal, and the classification - and the budget math - fall out cleanly.

Possible	Not Possible
		A school with $50,000 remaining in its budget orders $100,000 of textbooks in Braille to meet the needs of its students with visual impairments.
		A student’s need for alternative homework assignments requires the school to seek additional funding, as the certification of the student's accommodation would exceed the school's budget.
		A student with a severe learning disability spends most of the school day learning from a teacher with only a bachelor’s degree.

	At least some of these students spend all of their class time in special needs classes.
	The school’s budget does not cover the administration of the IEP of at least one of these students.
	Some of these students are taught the same curriculum and graded by the same standards as are students without IEPs.
	All of the aides who assist these students have completed a special six month certification.
	These students spend a minority of their time, if any, in general education classes.

Azalea County has one of the largest school districts in its state. It

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Yes	No
		A 250-student middle school requires 32 sign-language interpreters for students with hearing impairments.
		A 1,000-student high school has 120 students who receive an exemption from the oral presentations that are normally part of final grading.
		A 500-student school has 30 students who spend most of the day in a special-needs classroom.

GMAT Multi-Source Reasoning (MSR) Questions

Azalea County has one of the largest school districts in its state. It

Prep Toolkit

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My Rewards