Upon login, principals will be prompted to read and agree to the terms in the Assessment Administration Agreement. This must be completed prior to participation in the EQAO assessments. The Assessment Administration Agreement is valid for the current school year and will need to be agreed to each school year. Private schools will be required to add their institution name and contact information to the agreement prior to agreeing to its terms.
Private schools can look up the participation fees in the Assessment Administration Agreement and determine whether their school is required to pay fees.
Fees per School and Assessment Type
Table 2 from the agreement identifies whether private schools will be required to pay for the assessments based on their school type.
Payment Process for Private Schools
Private schools are required to pay for their students’ participation in the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (inspected schools in Ontario do not need to pay for the OSSLT), the Grade 9 Assessment of Mathematics and the primary- and junior-division Assessments of Reading, Writing and Mathematics.
If payment is required according to the Assessment Administration Agreement, schools would follow the instructions below on how to complete the payment process. Schools can review the agreement for more details regarding the payment terms.
1. When the school administrator logs in for the first time, the Assessment Administration Agreement will appear as a pop-up on the screen. The school administrator will need to add the institution name and contact information to the agreement and agree to the terms in order to proceed with scheduling the assessments.
2. After accepting the agreement, the administrator will be able to access the main dashboard. To access the agreement information, the administrator can select Review Agreement within the technical readiness checklist to open the agreement, which private schools will need to adhere to when paying for their tests.
3. The administrator must ensure that the technical readiness checklist has been completed before proceeding. To process the payment for testing, the school administrator will first need to schedule the tests, under the Assessment Sessions tab. The steps for scheduling the tests and processing the payment are below:
- a. The administrator will select Create New Session.
Note: Practice tests do not require payment—only the operational assessments must be paid for.
- b. The administrator will enter the session information to schedule the assessment and select OK.
- c. Once the session has been created, the administrator can then select the box next to it. “Required” will appear under Payment Status.
- d. The administrator can then click the Pay for Selected Session(s) button and review the order summary. If the order summary is correct, the administrator can select one of the payment methods.
e. Available Methods of Payment
- i. Credit card: The administrator will be redirected to a third-party website to complete the transaction. An e-mail will be issued if the transaction is approved or declined. Once the transaction has been approved, the payment status will indicate that it has been approved and the students will be eligible to write the assessment.
- ii. Alternative: The administrator will follow the instructions outlined in the e-assessment platform to send the money directly to EQAO. Once the administrator has confirmed that an alternative method for payment will be used, a confirmation e-mail will be issued. The payment is still pending EQAO approval. It is important to note that an assessment session must be scheduled at least 20 days in advance.
- f. If a student who has been paid for is moved between assessment sessions, no action is required. If a student who has not been paid for is added to an assessment session that has been paid for previously, the administrator will be prompted to pay for this student. Any unpaid assessment sessions will appear in a red banner at the top of the page.
4. In the Students tab, the administrator will use the Paid column to review which students have been paid for. If a student who has not been paid for tries to access the assessment, the student will receive a prompt indicating that the student will not be able to write the assessment.
5. There are two tables in the Purchases tab. The first table outlines all of the purchases for the entire assessment session. The second table outlines all of the student attempts at writing the assessment that have been paid for. The administrator can use the View Invoice(s) button to view or download the detailed invoice. A condensed invoice will be e-mailed once the payment has been approved. Note: Administrators will only see the Purchases tab after one payment has been paid.
Refund Policy
1. Refunds will be directly approved by EQAO. School administrators must e-mail info@eqao.com directly to start the refund process.
a. Services charges will apply according to the agreement.
2. EQAO will issue a refund under the following circumstances:
- a. The student did not attempt to write the test.
- b. The students are unable to complete the test due to technical issues from the third-party vendor (not from the school system or the student’s equipment or software).
- c. The student attempted to write the assessment, but the assessment was not completed for some reason (e.g., a student started the assessment but had to leave without finishing due to health reasons). The attempts will be considered on a case-by-case basis and only at EQAO’s discretion.
3. EQAO will not provide a refund when
- a. there is a technical issue with the school’s or student’s equipment or software.
- b. the school has not fulfilled the criteria for technical readiness.
4. Refunds are only considered and processed after the administration window has ended for each testing period.