I am meeting with a team from my dd's public school next week to create a plan for her gifted education in language arts. She is in 5th grade at a small public school system in California. ACT Profile test results put her in 93% for 8th graders. She is not gifted in math. DD is instigator of this meeting; she wants her time during the school day to be "more productive," she knows she wants to be a writer, and feels she is not being challenged by any of the curriculum (except math, which she dislikes). Her school has NO (and I mean it) resources or programs for gifted students (it's a very highly performing school district so they roll their eyes at pushy parents who want more),is very resistant to change, and there is not one penny of extra funding for anything. The principal wants to solve the situation as follows: "When the class is writing a paragraph, the teacher will make sure your daughter writes two paragraphs." She calls that differentiation. On the plus side, her current teacher is amenable to some kind of arrangement. At the moment, I am thinking of asking them to allow my dd to take online courses at school during school time, at school expense, to be monitored by the school. DD is currently taking an online high school class in Shakespeare in her own time at our expense.
I need advice regarding how to approach this meeting; as mentioned I am completely new to this. What are my rights under federal and state law? Does anyone have advice about my current above-proposed arrangement? Does anyone have advice on other possible arrangments? Thank you!
