I'm hoping that I can get some advice as I craft the appeal letter to the GT magnet school which denied my son entrance. This is the first round of appeal (apparently there is another after this as well but I don't know what that entails yet).
Background on my DS is
here,
here, and
here if interested.
They are only asking for a letter that describes NEW information that may impact the decision (information you didn't have when you applied). For us, it is the visual processing/sensory-motor diagnoses that were made since then.
I am tempted to cut/paste what I wrote but decided that might be the best idea so I will summarize what I did. Basically I described my son's visual processing and sensory-motor diagnosis (with enough detail but not excruciating) and then explained how these disorders affect him in the classroom. I don't know why he was rejected so I am making some assumptions here without saying it outright. I also sort of did a quick analysis of his private test scores to show the slow processing speed and explain that his vision likely impacted them. I wanted to make the point that his score would have probably been even higher if his eyes were working correctly and that he has been able to compensate for this deficiency very well (in terms of academics, not so much in the classroom). I can't say for sure about the OLSAT and NNAT that the district had him take - not sure if he would have done better on those or not. I do know from doing a few practice questions that it's possible he missed a couple where he had a more "creative" answer that was correct but not the one they wanted. I did not mention this in the letter.
I also mentioned that DS will be doing OT and VT over the next several months. I didn't say anything about having to accommodate for him at school.
So does this sound like a good outline? I was also thinking of attaching one of the papers we got from the optometrist showing his diagnosis as well as a brochure from
PAVE describing visual processing difficulties and how the symptoms manifest in kids at school (is that too much or will it be helpful?)
I want to get the information out and the tone correct without sounding like I am begging LOL I feel like he is at a disadvantage as he is not currently in the public system so they don't know him.
Any suggestions, ideas, comments would be appreciated. Thank you!
