I've seen both sides of this multiple times. It's really a no win scenario. If every advanced program is widely publicized, then over zealous parents push to put their children into such classes when their children often aren't a good fit rather than letting the school assess the need to be in the class (more on need later)This results in the staff spending more time dealing with fallout of students not being included than it does teaching those who need the class / service and discourages staff from even attempting the class / service.
I've also seen schools mention little or nothing about specialized programs and children miss opportunity to qualify for them or be prepared for them because they missed a specific day of school or some other reason. The common thought pattern being that the school is capable of assessing a child's needs and informing parents simply stirs the pot unnecessarily. If the child is assessed to qualify, then information goes out to parents of children in the program. It comes down to a "Need to know" basis.
Of course there are problems in both the above scenarios. Perhaps the bigger problem though is a recurring mindset I keep seeing in this and many other threads on this forum, that being the mindset of a certain percentage being the qualifying factor, instead of a percentage, the thought pattern should be getting students the classes and services they need regardless of what percentage of them need it. The percentage will vary from year to year and school to school.
