Welcome. You don't mention the age of your child. I'll fill you in on our experience. Hopefully you will find some of it useful.
DD was identified the summer between K and 1st grade. Old school special ed teacher at local public used a variety of programs. DD kept "outpacing the program" so she jumped around doing whatever she thought would help most. After 2nd grade we made the decision to outplace her to a special ed school. Not thrilled with the peers but small (5-1) ratio and intensive intervention made it worthwhile. The school offered enrichment but it wasn't really enough to meet her needs so we did a ton outside of school. One thing they did do that helped A LOT was radical subject acceleration in her area of biggest strength - placed her in an 8th grade English class (using audio books) as a 3rd grader then started 1-1 HS English as a 4th grader.
Here she had a young, recently graduated reading interventionist who insisted on choosing one program and implementing it with fidelity. This meant daily Wilson intervention. It took until 3rd grade for her to read at kindergarten level. By 5th grade she was reading at grade level. By the end of 6th grade she scored a 97 on the level Z Fountas and Pinnell. The gap between her abilities and her peers was widening but there was no place to move her. Our school district placed her in their one day a week TAG program which made the special ed school crazy. We knew she had to move on.
For 7th grade our district agreed to pay for a new 2e school that had just opened despite it not being an approved special ed school. This. Was. A. Disaster. They did not provide *anything* as promised and we pulled her out after 4 days. Be very wary of schools who market themselves as being designed for 2e students. I would be happy to discuss by pm if needed. Suffice it to say that despite the best of intentions I have seen several devolve into serving smart kids with behavior issues and/or not being able to meet the needs of the other E.
She is now thriving at Fusion Academy - a nationwide chain of 50+ locations - that offers 1-1 classes taught in the way each student needs and at the pace that each student needs. DD did a grade acceleration with them and is thrilled with her classes. She has a very strong interest in musical theater so has a ton of outside activities. In school they address the social issue by having the whole school meet for lunch at the same time and offering clubs each day. Not a typical social situation by any means but it works for DD.
By getting the intense intervention early on she's able to function well now although most of her education relies on the use of assistive technology. The year between the sped school and finding Fusion Academy she basically self taught/unschooled which also worked well at the time. It is really all dependent on the kid, their needs, their strengths and what resources are available in your community.
Hope this helps!
