Connecting Dots: Yes, they are saying that despite completing first grade in her current school she would have to go back to first grade because the way she was accelerated does not fall within the new state's law on acceleration. They said if I have an IQ test done and she scores over 130 she will be okay to move into second. I think it comes down to how they are funded. If she is not accelerated according to their laws, they do not receive funding for her.
Have you seen this in writing at the State's Dept of Ed website or elsewhere? It just sounds odd to me. When we looked into early entry for our ds, we found out that in our state there is a hard and fast barrier to early entry acceleration but that once a student has completed first grade that age-requirement is eliminated. I can't recall if this is a state law here or a school district policy but it was put in place because of the difference in timing of kindergarten cut-offs in different states. Our cutoff is in early fall, but some states don't put the 5 year old cutoff effective for kindy until December or January 1 - so if the district was carrying over the no-acceleration policy, there would be quite a few families every single year caught in a big loophole of having to send their child to first grade for the second time.
Sooo... one thing you might think of doing is calling in to the school district that you are looking at anonymously and tell them you are transferring in with an incoming second grader who's birthdate is one month past the kindy-entry date in the school district and ask them if she needs to provide any extra paperwork for entering 2nd grade in the fall.
Another thought - it's so danged easy to register for school here. Have you thought of just showing up at registration and registering her, taking along a copy of her report cards from the previous school and telling the folks at registration she's a second grader? I don't think any of the volunteers at our schools' registration would be on the ball enough to double check an incoming 2nd-graders birthdate - seriously. They are all over making sure you have immunization forms and fees, but that's about it. Then once she's registered and in class... fight the battle if it's in question. Truthfully, I wouldn't do this, I'd try to take care of it up front, but in reality I'm not sure it wouldn't be completely do-able, at least in our area.
Best wishes,
polarbear
