Hi Mick,
Glad to see you made it
. Mick's dd and my ds are in the same district and it is very difficult to get thing done as the District is just so large and unwieldy that turning the boat requires monumental effort despite policy being in place. The main thing is to be sure you have early AG entry. You won't get any accomodations without it. Call the AIG head and request a meeting outlining everything you've done this year and copy your principal. Request a response within the week with a meeting/conf call within two weeks. Let her know in writing that you are nominating your dd for Early AG recognition per policy so they must respond. It will take a semester but is required if you've not yet gotten that far. They will have to pay for testing after reviewing her portfolio, including work she has done at home. Once testing proves she is at 98th percentile for the WISC-IV and the Woodcock Johnson III Achievement test, she will then be granted an IEP to meet her needs. That IEP will outline what will be done for differentiation. Getting that IEP to be worth anything is another story as we've found. Having it just gives me something to bring up and is only updated once per year, usually several months into the year, very frustrating while the first quarter is wasted AGAIN. Each school seems to implement the IEP on their own with no standard to follow particularly when it comes to measuring growth. There really is no growth measurement or way to be sure to force them to change the IEP if it's not effective.
In the meantime, keep her challenged by sending in books at her level for her to read, ask if she can get log ins to the higher grade level math computer programs that are used during centers, see if they will pair her with an older child mentor, etc. (We finally got that but it's really overblown as to its affect..my son thinks it's stupid while the teacher thinks it's a great partnership!), do what you want to assist her and make them stop you rather than asking for permission
.
Shannon L.
