We are meeting with the principal and DS5's teacher today to discuss his proposed part-time switch to grade 1 for reading and writing instruction. This was his teacher's idea--we did not initiate it, but at her request, we emailed various school staff supporting the idea. We do think it is a good idea. The teacher says she thinks the principal will okay it, but is not positive. She is not sure why the principal wanted to meet with us in person to discuss. She has shown the principal some testing results from DS (I am not sure what the tests were, but not IQ--probably some kind of state reading tests).
I really do not know the principal, as the school is large and there has not been any reason for us to deal with her before. So I have no idea what I am walking into. For reference, as I have discussed before, the school houses a general education population that is very low-income (about 80% of the school--DS is in gen ed because he is in K) and a gifted magnet that starts in gr 2, which is higher-income and very different in many other ways (DD9 is in the magnet).
DS5 is doing okay in K with a great deal of personalized help from his teacher, who is amazing. I think she is worn out by trying to meet him where he is and would like to have him be instructed elsewhere for part of the day, in part so she can better help her other students. He is a child who will emotionally shut down if school does not meet his needs, so emotionally, challenge is important. Last year in preschool we had daily tears and resistance to school due to boredom. I plan to emphasize this if things go south. Any other tips? Our past efforts to advocate for our child (DD, at another school) were spectacularly unsuccessful, so I'm nervous. However, we did not have a teacher in our corner as we do now.
