Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Our continuing educational drama

OK, so me again with my troubles choosing a placement for next year. Since the gifted school has now put into the contract that they require DS to have a 1:1 and insurance will no longer pay for it because the data they took this year does not show need, we will not be able to use the gifted school. They want us to pay out of pocket for an aide they have in mind at 20 dollars an hour (for 7 hour school days). This is so beyond unaffordable for us it is ridiculous. Tuition would already be over 25% of our net income, even after the financial aid they offered. We have tried to contact them all week to talk about ways we could modify this to make the contract work for us, but they just keep ignoring our calls and emails, so I am pretty sure this option no longer exists for us, which is very disappointing. DS loves it there and he has been doing great, even as insurance has titrated his 1:1 hours down to 4 a day. The data being taken by the agency we use shows no aggression or risky behavior, just extra prompts needed for staying on task/a little help calming down when he gets upset. Basically, nothing far enough outside of the norm to warrant services. The school attributes his success to the 1:1 and are basing their recommendations off of his behavior at the beginning of the school year before we started 1:1 service. It's a bit of a mess right now.

So, this leaves us with public school as being very likely for next year. We had a nice IEP meeting with most of the team (gifted teacher not available for the meeting, so I haven't yet met her) and they had asked me to get back to them on a lot of things. So I did. I sent my email to the main point of contact I have had there so far, the school psych, but the response came from the special ed teacher (who was at the meeting, but said very little). I guess I should have expected this since his primary diagnosis is listed as ASD and his secondary as gifted, but it definitely looks like they are looking at him as disabled first, gifted second. Since most of my questions were about the gifted program/math placement, it seemed especially odd that the special ed teacher was the one getting back to me. And I really didn't like what she had to say.

At the IEP I had asked what they would do with him if he has already mastered the elementary curriculum and they said they would look into it and I should get back to them. Well here is the response I got:

"We have a curriculum we provide that is challenging for students. If (DS) is excelling, we will differentiate based on his needs. He will take pre-assessments prior to each new unit and more enriched opportunities will be provided as needed. Those enrichment opportunities will be provided in the classroom."

Seriously? If? The psych who gave him the WIAT could not believe the level of math he was doing. I have no idea what grade equivalent a 160 might be when a 1st grader takes the WIAT (or even if he scored the bare minimum to get the 160 or went way beyond), but I do know that it is a pretty strong indicator that he doesn't need to take pre-assessments and get "enrichment" WHEN he passes them. I read that like more in depth second grade math will be offered. We also provided them with DS's 230 map score, which upon googling, I have found that some districts use as a cutoff for math enrichment in 6th grade! And I suspect that his MAP score will go up for his spring test too as he has been doing lots of Khan Academy at home for fun (and to compete with his dad, they are racing for 100%... obviously DS doesn't stand a chance, but he is keeping up for now.)

I also asked for them to fund a summer social skills camp through ESY services, they said he could just attend the program they have running at the school. Even DS's behavioral specialist agrees with me that the school program is too low functioning to be helpful (the community program we are looking at requires at least average IQ and good verbal communication skills as well as no significant behavior problems). They had also told me during the meeting that since he has already fully explored one of the 2 topics that will be covered in the gifted program next year that we could give them some ideas for something else for him to do. In the email they said this: "The goal concerning oceans was written because it is a specific topic covered in the curriculum." So I guess that means no chemistry or genetics or anything DS might be interested in and his 2 hours per 6 day cycle of gifted pull out will consist primarily of one concept he mastered at 4 and another that is pretty basic and that he has little interest in. Yay. I had also asked for his raw scores on his tests as the psych said that she did still have them. I was told that they won't do any additional testing and the evaluation report contains everything we need and will not be altered in any way. I didn't even ask for additional testing or anything to be changed with the report.

They had already told me at the meeting that gifted services take the form of differentiation in the classroom and gifted pull out twice every 6 days. I was not terribly impressed. The pull out program now seems entirely inadequate and I never put much stock in the whole differentiation idea to begin with. But what I am hearing about math does not seem workable at all. DS is likely to be ready for at least pre-algebra next year and they are going to give him some sort of enhanced 2nd grade math? Plus at the IEP (while we were discussing the issues DS has with written output) I was told that the math curriculum they use has a lot of writing and he would need to follow the curriculum (this was after I mentioned he was not enjoying history or science anymore because of the high written output expected at his current school.) I guess they were letting me know he was going to start hating math too once he started public school? Are they honestly planning on requiring DS to write out the logic behind elementary math to prove he fully understands it when on Khan he is having fun multiplying negative fractions and learning about statistics and quartiles? At his current school they are doing a lot of stuff with variables and equations and he is doing quite well at it. I guess to some extent they probably don't understand exactly how advanced he is in math, but what was the point of all of the testing if they can't apply it to their picture of DS? We have the 160 WIAT, the 230 MAP, and the 158 Non-Verbal score on the WISC, isn't that enough to kind of give them the idea this is a kid who has math abilities outside of the norm?

I really don't want to homeschool again, but I may have to. I do think DS really needs the social interaction and the practice functioning in a more structured environment. We could do what we did for K and try public and pull him out if needed, but that was probably worse for him than if we had just kept him home that year. Maybe a Montessori program would work? (We tried one before and it didn't work, but it was the very strict type where you had to follow the progression precisely and DS (then 3) didn't do his (way too easy) work, he instead helped the 5/6 year olds do theirs. He ended the year not having mastered colors, lol. But I know Montessori's can be very different from strict to ones that just incorporate Montessori ideas and materials. Or maybe we should just take a gap year and visit the world, lol. Why does this have to be so difficult?

I'm so sorry you're fighting this again. (((Hugs)))

Your son's scores are so amazing, so extreme! I'm surprised they keep blowing you off as if they can differentiate in the classroom. When my son was 1st grade and we were looking forward into 2nd grade, his school told me that math was not something conducive to differentiation.

If you're forced into homeschool because of academics, how can you get the social and structure components that you're concerned about missing?

I'm not that surprised. I think you should count yourself very lucky homeschooling is an option and start looking for ways to provide the social side. Could he go to an after school programme? The one my kids use from time to time involves 3 hours of unstructured outdoor play with an indoor gym available for wet weather and craft materials books and games for those who don't wish to scooter/play with balls/climb trees and generally run around. Most of them are a bit more structured but even so there should be plenty of time to play with other kids.

Hugs! I'm so sorry your DS is in this situation. We've been in a G/T program in the public school here since K and my oldest ds is moving on to middle school this year.

Based on 6 years of experience with begging for more advanced material, accelerations, etc., in the public school system, at a G/T school no less, for a kid like yours I'd consider homeschooling if you can possibly make it work. We've gotten lucky over the years, with teachers who do understand and let the kids work ahead, but a lot of the teachers we've encountered really don't have the energy to deal with outliers.

I still don't know if the administration at our school really doesn't understand what my kids are capable of, or if they do, but don't want to do anything about it so they're playing naive. I suspect the second case.

Do you live in an area where there are homeschool groups? Our local Y has homeschool PE classes, the local museums have art and science homeschool groups, and there are a lot of moms who group together to schedule playdates and such.

I would love to homeschool, but my husband insists that I'm not disciplined enough to pull off the schedule and I strongly suspect he's right. I tend to flow freely from one activity to the next...

As it stands my older son got into a middle school that we are pretty sure will handle him well, and we're just hanging in there with younger DS until he gets to middle school too. Supplementing where we can and encouraging extracurricular activities helps.

Best of luck to you. It's so difficult to have a child who is an outlier. Very few people truly understand what you are living with, and even fewer understand what your child is going through.

LOL, the beauty of homeschool is the schedule is irrelevant. Just sayin!

Is it possible that you are making it somewhat more difficult than it is? For example, the private school has given you its final offer. Yet you seem to believe that details in the offer are open for negotiation. Possibly it is time to tell your child, "Mother and Father cannot afford another year at that school. We are glad that you enjoyed the opportunity while we could provide it for you, this year. We will make an effort to arrange some play dates with your friends so you can keep in touch."

Don't waste your energy on solutions that do not work for your child at this time... it can drain you until you have nothing left to offer to your child. Stay on task, focusing on what can work; Based on your posts, that sounds like homeschool.

If you are interested in further vetting the public school, you may wish to first read up on buzzwords and grading practices in order to interpret what the school says and manage your expectations as to what your son's experience will likely consist of. For example, students may be required to achieve 100% on inane pre-assessment questions in order to unlock "enrichment"; The enrichment may consist of tutoring others, differentiated task demands (more stringent requirements in order to earn the same grade as other students), etc, designed to achieve "equal outcomes". Teachers are evaluated and schools are rated/ranked based on closing achievement gaps and excellence gaps; This includes capping the growth of students at the top. You could ask the school for clarification:
- what the cut-scores would be on the pre-assessments.
- what the enrichment opportunities would consist of.
Meanwhile his need is for curriculum and teaching at his appropriate challenge level or zone of proximal development (ZPD), with academic/intellectual peers.

Does the school fund this camp for other children residing in the district? How strongly do you believe in this camp? Would the specialist write a letter outlining camp goals and how this camp uniquely meets your son's needs? Would you pay for this camp yourself if the school does not fund it for your son?

If you are interested in further vetting the public school, you may wish to ask them what other topics are covered by the curriculum, so that you might attempt to partner with the school to find a match between one of those topics and his potential interests.

Did you receive the scores? If scores were provided to you, then the rest of the communication was unnecessary static. However if scores were not provided to you, then some may say their reply was "non-responsive"... meaning it did not address your question. Under FERPA, parents are entitled to receive scores. Read up on FERPA, then make a written request.

If you are not familiar with wrightslaw, you may wish to read up on that, including their book From Emotions to Advocacy, and their FETA website.

Data Collection.

Any particular reason why?