For teachers and IEP or 504 teams

Draft for the pilot. The app is still being built, so please confirm these details against the version the student is actually using.

What it is

Digital graph paper on a tablet. The student writes math with a pen, and each line turns into clean typed math lined up on the grid. It supports students with dysgraphia and ADHD who understand the math but lose points to handwriting: columns that drift, symbols that are hard to read, and signs or terms dropped when copying a line down to the next step.

All of the math is done by the student.

What it does, and what it never does

It does	It never does
Converts the student's handwriting into typed math. Lines up rows and equals signs on a grid. Shows minus and operation signs in bold so they are easy to check. Copies the previous line down to start the next step. The student makes every change. Exports a PDF of the student's own handwriting.	Solve, simplify or calculate anything. There is no calculator. Check answers or give hints. Add, remove or correct a symbol the student wrote. A dropped sign stays visible to the teacher. Collect any information about the student, or require an account. Use the internet, apart from downloading the handwriting reader once during setup.

How you will receive work

Work arrives as a PDF showing the student's own handwriting placed on graph paper, with a header that reads "Written in StepPad. StepPad converts handwriting to type and does no math." No handwriting font is ever substituted, so every mark on the page is the student's own. You are welcome to ask to see the tablet at any time.

Suggested accommodation wording

The student may use a handwriting-to-type digital graph paper app with no calculation or solving features, on a dedicated tablet, for written math work in class, on homework and on assessments. The student may submit math work as a PDF exported from the app.

For state assessments, the student may use the app in Test Mode, with internet access disconnected, as digital graph paper under the scratch paper universal tool.

State testing in California

The 2026 to 2027 California Assessment Accessibility Resources Matrix lists scratch paper as a non-embedded universal tool. It permits a student to use an assistive technology device, including digital graph paper, to make notes, as long as the construct being measured is not impacted and the device's internet access is disconnected. Because the app performs no math, it does not change what a math assessment measures.

• Name the app in the IEP or 504 plan and use it in daily instruction. Testing resources are expected to be ones the student already uses regularly.
• Let the site CAASPP coordinator know before the testing window.
• On test day the tablet runs Test Mode with airplane mode on. Test Mode shows only a blank page, confirms the internet is off, keeps the student inside the app, and needs the proctor's PIN to exit.
• Ending Test Mode permanently erases the work, in line with the requirement that scratch work be collected and destroyed after each session.
• If the coordinator is unsure whether the app falls under scratch paper, the LEA can submit an unlisted resource request in TOMS at least 10 business days before the student's first testing day. The California Department of Education replies within four business days. Unlisted resources are available only to students whose IEP or 504 plan names the resource.

Families outside California should check their own state's testing accessibility manual, since each state sets its own rules for devices used as scratch paper.

Test Mode is planned for a later phase and is not in the pilot build yet. Please do not plan a testing accommodation around it until it has shipped and a test coordinator has reviewed it.

Privacy

The app collects nothing, has no accounts, no ads and no analytics, and the work stays on the device unless the student shares it. The full privacy policy is here.