Well..... so not great update. DS11 has been having trouble in school. 3 core classes are "too easy" so he stopped using study skills and his grades dropped predictably. Might be easy, but it's still new material. The 4th is a project-based class for top 10th percentile students, and it's intended to push them. It's a bad fit for DS11. He fell behind, perfectionism, anxiety, procrastination, lying to cover up, and his grades dropped from straight As to C to D-.
School is ignoring his lagging skills, saying it's *only* a behavior problem. Principal made a comment that student-led learning is "inappropriate" and a bad "habit" and insinuated DS11 is lazy. Oh my. I am one angry momma! DS11 has been doing homework 40 hours per week outside of school. He is incredibly slow and inefficient at doing his homework, but it's not like he is playing or watching TV. DS11 is VERY sleep deprived, still beating himself up and pushing for A honor roll again. He has been physically sick with a lingering cold. His home behavior has changed from passive to aggressive with screaming, name-calling (directed at me), throwing things, breaking things, slamming doors, etc.
To make it all worse, DS11 finally told me he has been verbally and physically harassed at school for months, originating out of gym class. Remember how the principal said he would keep DS11 with age mates for gym class? That didn't happen. I've had an optimistic "we'll try it and see what happens" attitude about his accelerations and classroom placements, and now I'm regretting not sticking to my guns on the gym class issue.
I have requested DS11 be removed from the project-based classroom as soon as his late work is caught up. I requested his 504 be reviewed. Harassment is being investigated.
I am working on my Plan B for next year if I'm not satisfied with how the situation resolves. I just can't get over their refusal to address his slow processing speed adequately. I am seriously considering putting him in community college next year, just one class per semester. Most the classes are high school level, IMO. I know a couple of the instructors, have taken some of the classes I know he can handle. He took placement testing 2 summers ago, so I know he is academically capable. He has proven he can adopt organization and study skills (and learned a hard lesson about why they must be maintained). He has proven he can manage pieces of his schedule independently and get to where he needs to go by himself. I think all the pieces are in place and he is ready. One liiiiiittle problem is it eliminates the public school option completely. It's either community college, homeschool, or gap years left if I do it.
