Hunter Education Assistance for Those With Learning Disabilities

May 1, 2014

Question: My son has a severe reading/learning disability. He wants to take the hunter education class in order to get his hunting license but will need some assistance during the testing phase of the class. What accommodations are available for him? (Nathan H.)

Answer: In California we provide reasonable accommodations for all entitled students. Anyone with a disability can ask the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) for reasonable accommodation and it will be provided on an individual basis taking into consideration that person’s specific needs. The parent, guardian or mentor should contact the CDFW before the course to request accommodations.

According to Hunter Education Instructor Leader Lt. Bart Bundesen, the key to success for any student is to study for the hunter education exam by assembling all of the pertinent information beforehand and tailoring it to their own learning approach. Here are a few resources to do this:

1.   Get the hunter education manual in advance and work with a partner to complete the chapter reviews at the end of the book.

2.   In addition to the manual, get the hunter education workbook and answer the questions. Both the manual and the workbook can be obtained ahead of time by contacting the course instructor or a local CDFW office.

3.   Go to any of the CDFW-approved home study online courses and study the material on their websites. The websites are www.hunter-ed.com/ca/ or www.huntercourse.com/usa/california/ or www.ihea.com/hunting-and-shooting/hunter-education/online-courses.

These websites are recommended for a couple of reasons. The Today’s Hunter in California (www.hunter-ed.com/ca/) website belongs to the same company that makes the hunter education manuals we use in California, so the material is very similar. This site has California-specific information, good animations and video. HunterCourse.com is another great website, especially for students without strong reading skills, because it incorporates more visual learning tools. The Today’s Hunter and Huntercourse.com websites both have additional audio narration functions. The International Hunter Education Association (www.ihea.com/hunting-and-shooting/hunter-education/online-courses) website also provides a lot of great information and is a good study website.

Don’t worry if it looks like a pay website. There is no charge for using any of these websites to study but the actual online courses are designed for adults. For youngsters and those with learning disabilities, we recommend that in addition to studying from these websites, they take the full 8-hour class because they will likely understand and retain the information better. The online courses require the student to do all studying and learning via the computer, and then come into the 4-hour follow up class knowing everything and ready to take the exam. While most of the material is reviewed in the 4-hour follow up class, we see a much higher success rate among people who take the full 8-hour class. Students who take the full class have the added benefit of listening to the class discussions, watching the instructor demonstrations and they can ask questions if they need better clarification about any of the topics they must learn before taking the test.

For additional questions on what reasonable accommodations may be available, please contact CDFW’s Reasonable Accommodation Coordinator at (916) 651-1214