I can pay a tutor for 20 years and I guarantee it won't make a difference on her writing but I can show the district that I am at least trying. Your comment about the schools not understanding 2e kids is spot on. The tutor we are using is a gifted class teacher at DD's school.
Laurie918, I can so identify with your frustration, having a 2e ds who struggled tremendously with written expression and still does. I can't help but wonder though - if you were able to find a tutor who understood the root of the issue with writing for your dd, if tutoring or some type of therapy wouldn't help? Speech therapy targeting written expression helped our ds tremendously, and although he still struggles with it, it's been extremely worthwhile having pursued it. One other thing that happened with improvements in his written expression - it didn't all happen smoothly and obviously - there were many times he'd go for long stretches seeming to not be making any improvements and then suddenly all the work leading up to that point would click and he'd make a big leap.
The gifted class tutor might not be the person that your dd needs for tutoring at this point, particularly if she doesn't understand 2e or if she doesn't understand what is at the root of your dd's challenge with written expression. Have you ever had your dd evaluated by a speech pathologist? Speech therapy targeted at written expression is what helped our ds the most, and it's not something the school suggested or I ever would have thought of had I not read some obscure reference to it in one of the Eides' books and then read about others online who'd approached written expression challenges through speech therapy.
Best wishes,
polarbear
