Is there any regulation or rule/law regarding G&T, which applies to schools run by or overseen by the US Dept of State, Office of Overseas Schools?
These are schools originally designed and set up for kids of consular and embassy employees living overseas; they are generally referred to as American International Schools, and are basically arms of this department, usually overseen by parent boards locally, with a countries' ambassador as their nominal head (with veto power to over rule the parent board if they get too crazy costs or ideas).
I ask because we are US citizens living overseas, and attend such a school here, as we did when we lived in a different foreign country.
Our child may be gifted (we are testing now).
We want to know to what we are entitled, if needed, and do not want to waste a year struggling thru a maze of policies, people, papers and procedures, only to find out the answer is zip---or that we can't get it for him now, for this school year, because we waited too long to ask for it.
The schools in question often appear to be expensive private schools, and everyone who attends pays fees--here it is $35,000 per child, plus the cost of meals and busing, which equals about $5000 more per year.
The US government foots the bill for its employees' kids; private employers, like ours, often pay fees for kids of their employees. Local people can pay to send their kids to this school, too.
We and gov't employees both still have to pay taxes here, to the local public school system of this country (which generally the govt and private employer pay up front each year), BUT we also pay US tax in full, deducted from our paychecks, just as if we were still living in the US, which includes taxes to the state and to local schools in our old neighborhoods, back home. We just can't attend the schools in either place we pay!
Each country has its own set-up, in terms of which accreditations back in the US they choose to be governed by, and they are certified by a European body as well (usually CEESA). Most offer either the AP or IB system, but generally never both. Ours participates in the IB system currently.
My question is, does our son have the right, if ID'd as gifted, to a suitable and appropriate gifted program, or can we push for an IEP while here?
He gets some pull-outs right now for advanced reading, etc, but they seem to want to make the issue of his accelerated talents "go away", and let them "develope on their own", which makes me think either 1) if officially ID'd, then they have to pay for doing so, and 2) they are currently offering so many exceptional programs, mainstreaming, one on one, in-class aides, etc, that if they have to pay, it will have to come out of that budget, and they (probably rightfully) are reluctant to do that. maybe they can't, as US law may apply there, and they might have to provide that, above and over any other consideration.
I would think that at this levelof tuition, it'd be a given that G&T would be a right; but it seems that when they decide to do IEPS, as they have done without my input for my son, that is all they will provide, andit;s no use to ask fro more.
I my company paid to send my kid to, say Choate, or Andover Prep, back home--I do believe he'd be getting way more than just some pull outs and IEP plans.
Anyone have any comments or ideas on this one? Any experience with overseas schools (NON-MILITARY affiliated---that's a whole other animal, apparently).
