Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Prep for meeting with school, any advice?

oh no hugs. much luck to you.

MON, I hear you on the handwriting issues... DD has no official accommodations either. Last year, I had her type her homework (without asking the teacher's permission). The teacher was fine with it, and homework was MUCH quicker As for in class work, I haven't tried to address that. I am very interested to hear what you and the school work out for your DS.

Dear Master:

So sorry to hear your meeting was discouraging. For what it's worth, I've found the best summarized blow-by-blow account of a mother's ongoing negotiations with schools over her child's whole educational career in the beginning of DEVELOPING MATH TALENT. You might find some comfort (or not!) and ideas there. In essence, she concludes that advocacy with the public system is a time-consuming, effort intensive job that continues through all twelve years of the conventional curriculum. For this reason, we are trying to have a home-school system set up as a fall-back.

I'd like to mention again the rich resource base the Davidson institute offers in its Davidson Gifted Database pages - I know there are specialized articles there on dealing with handwriting and suchlike, if you haven't read them already.

When I think this process through, and try to see the public school administration's side, I assume about 80% of their parents believe their children to be gifted and deserving of 'special' attention. For this reason, I've concluded it's essential to have third party data (test scores) and analysis (articles and research) to make the case I want to present. With this approach I'm hopeful we can maintain the dialog on the plane of what is best for the child and consistent with the school's mission, rather than the plane of what we think versus what they think.
I have my fingers crossed that this approach will get us where we want to be.

Hang in there!

Agreed. Try to collect as much tangible data as you can to support your situation. I really feel you should go with the full eval at this point to see what you are dealing with. Find out what's behind the handwriting and expression issues from a specialist. They can get you the special education plan if you need it.

I look at how stressed I was last year. The thought of repeating the process and starting over with each teacher for 11 more years makes me realize it may not be a good idea for me!
I'm not sure I have the temperment to deal with it!

I'm currently attempting to take advantage of a partial homeschool availability that our state has. This way the girls can attend school with their friends(they get a long with different age groups and we are lucky that they both like being with their same age group as well), yet spend part of their day, working at their appropriate learning level. And I don't have to put the burden on the teacher. I think it works for everyone. The girls are happy, parents feel learning needs are adressed to some point, teacher doesn't have to deal with me!

I would LOVE partial homeschooling! My state doesn't allow it.

MON:
You say that one of your options is to get outside testing to find out what he needs and then tell the school. Does that mean that you aren't sure what he needs? I'd say do the private testing if you can - don't wait around for the school to do it or to "use their expertise". They probably don't know what to do either.

After a very frustrating meeting that we had with the principal in June we decided that we had to pursue further testing. They psychologist who tested DS two years ago told us that it seemed time to reassess to get a stable measure of ability and to figure out the behaviors issues. We just don't feel that the school is giving him what he needs but yet we don't really know what he needs. Hoping to know after testing in August. Then we'll know what to ask for and whether the school can do it.

Best of luck. It would be nice to take the summer off from worrying about school stuff, wouldn't it??!

Dazey,
The state allowing for it and actually getting it to work properly are two totally different propositions........

Debbie,
Incredibly frustrating, sent you a p.m.

Oh Mon, what a disappointing meeting! Better luck next time, and be sure to document everything they promised!

Partial HS sounds like a terrific option. What states allow it?

FWIW, we are looking at sinking big bucks into testing. We'd rather spend it on things like specialized lessons, toys (and vacations!), but just don't see any way around it. We try to see it as an investment that will yield a return to our overall family quality of life for years and years to come.

MON -
This just makes me want to cry. How sad. It was bad enought when they resisted letting my 'low handwriting' boy type, but if my own son wasn't at least talking at school, I would have felt too helpless. I'm praying you get a teacher who understands.

I guess if it were me I would start the ball rolling on the SPED, just out of sheer frustrationg, and because it's the only thing that is gaureenteed to get action of some kind.

Remember that we aren't required to fix all these messes, just to do our best and try.
Grinity