Well, my first meeting with the SD was a very positive one and after an hour we got a lot of good information on what to expect and what our options are. It was clear that we were being guided towards having our DS attend K (versus going directly to 1st, which we were talking about as a possible option).

Today I did a lot of legwork and I spoke with the principal where DS would start if he went into first. At this point DW and I don't know what we want to do for DS. We're collecting information. This was a very disappointment meeting as the principal was very much against the idea. This was done over the phone, which I will never do again (in person meetings only). Based on a few things that the principal said, my impression was that the principal is used to seeing "flash card" parents or parents that push their bright kids. So the reaction that I received was one more of roadblocks than of wanting to discuss the individual situation of our DS. Lots of quoting about social development, and eventually quoting of regulations. I was told that skipping first would definitely not be an option (I can somewhat understand, but now that my parameters have been changed, my opinion on the current situation has changed). In general it feels like the one-size-fits-all model. We're asking for what our options are and we're being told very clearly we have just one. Not very happy about that.

I'm going to vent here for a moment, but from what I was told in order to start 1st instead of K, our child would need to be evaluated for mental age, have a mental age of at least 7 (isn't 6yo the cutoff for first?), take the exit K school evaluation test and not pass it but have an "exceeds" grade/evaluation. Contrast this with friends of the family who are one school district away and it was essentially one face-to-face meeting and a call to the child's former nursery school. Ah to be in that district!

Now I'm going to have to go find the actual SD regs, and learn them. Huff.

We did decide that we're getting DS tested independently. We found a place that will do the WPPSI-III for a reasonable price.

Alright. That was cathartic.

JB