Do Bay Area schools for neurodivergent students require standardized entrance exams?

Most of these schools skip the “test or bust” approach entirely. Traditional entrance exams like the SSAT or ISEE? Forget it—they’re usually off the table because one score doesn’t tell the whole story of your child’s potential. These schools understand that learning differences don’t show up neatly in multiple-choice questions.

Instead, admissions teams go deeper. They want to know who your child is, not just what they can bubble in. That means interviews to get a sense of personality, parent questionnaires for insight at home, teacher recommendations to understand classroom dynamics, and sometimes a short writing sample to gauge communication skills. Some schools might also request recent evaluations or psychoeducational assessments, not as gatekeepers, but to better tailor support plans.

The best part? There’s no high-pressure, stress-filled testing marathon standing between your child and a seat in class. These schools care about strengths, challenges, and learning styles—not test prep stats. So if you were bracing for months of vocabulary drills and math practice, you can relax. Here, admissions is about fit, not figures. And that shift changes everything for families who know their kids are more than a score.