Hi all. My DS4 yrs, 10 mos, will be starting in school next fall. The local public elem. school's gifted coordinator agreed to meet with us (yay!) when I contacted her to give her the heads up on DS, who tested in the HG+ range on the SB-V. (And a thank you to our friend who also has a HG+ kid who recommended that we speak to the gifted coordinator.) I gave her copies of his SB-V reports, because I figured if we wanted them to help us, the more information they had, the better. She asked if we wanted her to share this info with the principal too, or keep it for later. I couldn't see any negatives in sharing the info, but now I'm wondering if there could be any negative aspects? It's not like it would be a big secret once they actually met him. I guess it's too late now, because we already gave permission, but if anyone can think of a reason why not to share this info, i'd love to hear it.
I am so happy that the gifted coordinator wanted to meet with us and help us. She seemed very excited to get DS's info and to help him. She says her expertise is in helping to create appropriate curriculum. Sounds good to me. She said she will help us work with the principal. She is not aware of anyone in our district testing at DS's levels, which I think is a positive. Another positive is that the gifted coordinator said that there is law in our state requiring the district to provide appropriate education for identified gifties. Also, she said she knows of out-of-the-box teachers in every grade of elementary, who she will recommend at sorting hat time. I piped up and asked if it is possible for us to recommend other kids who DS gets along with to also be placed in particular classes, and she said we could (no guarantees, but isn't that nice?). She is also going to see if the principal will agree to let DS take MAP achievement testing when they test the other (older) kids in the spring (even though he won't technically be a student yet).
So, I'm just sharing my happy feelings for now. We still have some concerns, such as no official gifted programs until 3rd grade, and less than a handful of kids who have grade-skipped (not our first plan, but probably in the future). And of course, we haven't met with the principal yet, who has ultimate say, and haven't gotten to the school yet, but we're happy to have a kindred spirit on our side.
