(See RCW 28C.10.050 (1)(g).) Prior to enrolling applicants the school must assess the applicants' basic skills and relevant aptitudes to determine that he or she has the ability to complete and benefit from the training they are considering.

(1) When a school applies for initial licensing under chapter 28C.10 RCW, it must submit a description of the method it will use to comply with the requirements under this section. Any subsequent change in that method must be reported to the agency no more than fifteen calendar days after the change is adopted.

(2) The school must measure all applicants' ability to benefit against current prerequisites for employment in the job objective established for the program, e.g., prior work and health history, English language proficiency, driving and arrest records, and evaluations of any applicable physiological factors such as vision acuity, color perception, lifting and weight bearing capabilities, and manual dexterity.

(3) Schools may consider that applicants have adequate academic abilities if they have earned a high school diploma, high school equivalency, or General Educational Development (GED) certificate.

(4) Schools may consider that applicants have adequate English language proficiency if they have received:

(a) A high school diploma from a high school where English is the primary language; or

(b) A high school equivalency or General Educational Development (GED) certificate in English; or

(c) A passing score on the Test of English as a Foreign Language, or the International English Language Testing System or a similar language proficiency exam; or

(d) A satisfactory evaluation of the applicant's foreign course work that has been produced by a reputable organization specializing in such evaluations.

(5) The school must test all other applicants. Any academic or English language proficiency test must have the capability of:

(a) Validating that applicants possess skills, competencies, and knowledge that correlate with grades, course or program completion or other measures of success in the program of study; or

(b) Validating that applicants' academic skills, competencies, and knowledge are at a level equivalent to that of persons completing a high school education;

(c) Comparing success ratios of accepted students with test cut-off scores and incorporating appropriate cut-off adjustments.

(6) Any ability to benefit (ATB) test that has been published by the American College Testing Service (ACT) or reviewed and approved by the American Council on Education (ACE) is acceptable evidence of meeting the criteria in subsection (5) of this section.

(7) The following must be part of the methodology developed for assessment:

(a) In the event tests are administered by school officials, evidence the tests are being administered as intended;

(b) Information about the test security procedures employed, evidencing that students have no advance information about the exact questions or tasks and that answers cannot be supplied by a third party while completing the test(s);

(c) Information about test scoring procedures employed, evidencing that if tests are scored by school officials the tests are being evaluated as intended;

(d) Information that the tests are free from information that is offensive with regard to gender, age, native language, ethnic origin, or handicapping conditions.

(8) Records resulting from the ability to benefit assessment must be included as a regular part of all students' records.