Can anyone here with knowledge of PA gifted ed mandates correct me if I'm wrong? I believe our district is entirely out of compliance in their testing and reporting timeframe.
My 1st grade daughter was tested by the district psychologist on Feb 6. I still have not received a Gifted Written Report. They do have a (tentative) GIEP meeting set up for two weeks from now, but have only casually discussed it being for the daughter who was just tested. As far as paperwork and documentation, the scheduled meeting is for my older child's annual GIEP.
This is concerning on several levels. We originally requested testing on Sept 8. The school then did a screening (SAGES) but we did not receive those results or the permission to test paperwork until Nov 24. I returned those forms Nov 28. In late January I asked why the testing had not happened yet, found out the psychologist had misplaced the paperwork or forgotten all about it, and then she scrambled and did the testing on Feb 6.
PA Chapter 16.22 states that "The initial evaluation shall be completed and a copy of the evaluation report presented to the parents no later than 60 calendar days after the agency receives written parental consent for evaluation..." I emailed the gifted support teacher the other night about how we still had not received the Gifted Written Report. I specifically mentioned that it had been 4 weeks since the test date, and 14 weeks since we had signed the permission to test. Yesterday while I was at the school volunteering, the principal mentioned that my email had been forwarded along to the psychologist (as well as the principal, apparently?) and that the GIEP meeting was scheduled and I'd get the report "before the meeting." The tone and implication is that I am unreasonable in my expectations. The gifted support teacher replied to the email just this morning, stating that "we can go ahead and plan to meet for (daughter 2) at 9:30 just after (daughter 1)'s meeting. I have been informed that you will get (daughter 2)'s report before the meeting." (There's a whole other issue here, in that daughter 1's meeting is scheduled for 9:15, so they've allotted a whole 15 minutes to hers, even though she is twice exceptional and partially-accelerated. But I'm picking my battles, always.)
Are they not obligated to have me sign the same form I did for daughter 2, agreeing to the meeting? Are they not obligated to provide the Gifted Written Report within the state mandated timeframe? I am tempted to go higher with this, but hesitate because I am very involved in the school and dread dealing with conflict drama. Being very involved, I am very well aware of the limited resources and various struggles they deal with daily. I think many gifted parents probably feel that their school does not take gifted ed seriously, but I would hope they would at least follow the law??
Thank you for reading. Please advise if you would let it go, take it further, etc. I value this community immensely.
