cc6, a few thoughts for you:

1) I would follow through with the IEP update - it should include ability and achievement testing, which will give you hard data to use when advocating for advanced material in the classroom. Whether or not you ultimately decide to homeschool for now and don't need the data, having an ability test in your back pocket will come in handy in the future, and this is one way to get it without paying anything for it.

2) You can request that your ds be moved to a different classroom now. Even if it's just another kindergarten classroom and there is no advanced work, it's possible that putting him in with a different teacher may help break him out of the negative psychological slide he is in at the moment (and that would be my #1 concern right now).

3) Advocates don't always cost money. I am not in LA so I can't help you with specific advice or knowledge, but I can tell you that there are advocacy groups in many areas across the US that are funded by Federal $ and offer free services and/or advice to parents. We had wonderful, free advocate advice guiding us through our IEP eligibility process that we initially found through the yellow pages at www.wrightslaw.org - there is a link to "yellow pages" on their home page, and the yellow pages contain a state-by-state (and maybe area-by-area, I can't remember for sure) listing of resources.

4) You could ask your school district or your pediatrician if there are agencies that will help with advocacy. Although we found our advocate's agency through the wrightslaw listing, we realized after the fact that our ped also knew about them and would have recommended them, and they were mentioned *to* us as a resource when we went through the IEP eligibility process - our school district has them listed as a resource on some of the eligibility paperwork.

5) Does your ds' IEP specify HFA or is it written specifically for speech? Your comment that "my son is HFA (high functioning autism) most would never know he has aut. or maybe now they would?" made me wonder if the school staff knows about his HFA. I am guessing that they must, but *if* they don't, I think it would be really helpful to share that info with them. Most importantly, I think it would help in understanding on the part of the teachers, and it also might help in being able to get the services he needs in his IEP (including gifted).

That's all I can think of at the moment - I hope it helps a bit.

Best wishes,

polarbear