In August, 1983, Governor Dukakis signed into law Section 19 of Chapter 344 of the Acts and Resolves stating that "No resident of the Commonwealth who has been diagnosed as being developmentally disabled, including but not limited to, learning dyslexia or other specific language disabilities, by any procedure prescribed by Chapter 71B, or equivalent testing, shall be required to take any standardized college entrance aptitude test to gain admittance to any public institution of higher education in the Commonwealth.  Admission shall be determined by all other relevant factors excluding standardized achievement testing."  The State schools have traditionally based admission decisions on a variety of criteria, recognizing the student's secondary school transcripts as the primary component.  They expect SAT's to support the transcript and have never used them as the sole determinant in the decision-making process.  However, they are regarded as an important secondary factor.  Since they can no longer require SAT's from students with learning disabilities, they are inclined to place a greater emphasis on high school performance when making decisions regarding such students.  Recommendations from teachers and counselors will take on increased significance in the evaluation process.  If you have questions or concerns, do not hesitate to discuss specific issues with your school counselor.