Thank you and yes! I will be glad to post our experiences with the SWAS. I can tell you that so far, the administration has been GREAT! They have been very responsive.

For anyone in the area or considering the area, the guy to talk to is Tim Robinson; you can reach him through the Washoe school district GATE site.

http://washoecountyschools.org/dist...y-school-programs/school-within-a-school

The GATE team meets once a week on Tuesdays to discuss students who are recommended or applying to the program. If a parent is requesting evaluation, it will take some time to set up the evaluation so they are looking at the following year. If you already have test results, that speeds the process considerably. In our case, we already had the WISC-IV and the WIAT-II so they took his scores and used them to determine eligibility so that he can go right into the program.

We're not trying to accelerate him through the school grades; I don't care if he wants to be with age-mates. I just want for him to be with friends who think the way he does and for him to be in a learning environment that isn't trying to stifle him so in the name of social development. That alone will make school a much more interesting and pleasant environment.

It's actually a bit funny. After having DS8 in her class for an entire school year, his teacher still doesn't know how to motivate him to complete his reading questions. He's gaming the system by reading until he runs out of time and telling her he will do the question journal tomorrow.

When tomorrow comes, he "needs to read the chapter again to remember what happened." When she told me that in the meeting, I just started laughing; probably not the best response. Then I told her that he's motivated by learning and reading; if you want the questions completed, you have to tell him that they must be finished before he is allowed to continue reading.

After the meeting, I spoke to DS8 and told him that he must do his question journal and that if it's not completed, reading privileges are suspended. We haven't had that problem since but here's the thing: I never knew it WAS a problem. She could have emailed me at any time and I could have fixed it but I can't fix what I don't know...grrr...