I appreciate the time everyone is taking to help me - Wow!
Dottie - Your observation that his GAI is 136, instead of 134, checks out with me. This would allow him to stay in the program if the bar moves up again! I cannot thank you enough. I'm just hoping there are no other errors in the report that would then skew back to the 134 (or lower). For example, if DS scored lower on one of the subtest scores and the psych simply made a type-o in listing the scores on the report. However, you rightly point out that there is no 134 GAI. I need to think about how to approach the school on this one. I haven't really set foot back in the office since last year - only the classrooms. Thoughts are welcome & appreciated. And, again, thank you for pointing out this important math error to me!!!!
Grinity - Our school does not begin GT until 3rd grade, but the students must be 8 to be tested and are ID'd by end of 2nd grade (something like that because the whole GT placement process is basically a mystery to the parents - very secretive). Since DS was 7 in 2nd grade (due to skip), it's possible that he was overlooked because he was not age-eligible for testing. However, his 2nd grade teacher did once tell me, "He's very smart, but I doubt he's gifted," so I (wrongly) assumed the case was closed. At the start of 3rd, the GT students are all put in one specific teacher's class and track together, so the other teachers are going to assume any GT students are already in the program (except new students).
Last year, a very kind mom with several GT children at school took me aside and told me that my son was obviously GT and that I needed to advocate for him. I barely knew this lady at the time, but she came out of the blue & was so kind (like all of you posters!). Over the year, I followed all the required steps with this lady's help. During the eval & testing process, the school firmly maintained that DS's grade skip was his "intervention" and no other "intervention" was needed. However, there are a few other students who have been grade-skipped (including a few of this nice lady's kids), it was interesting to note that all those students had been tested & ID'd as GT. (DS was never even tested.) The school insisted that his IEP include the disclaimer that his "intervention" had been grade-skipping. However, because DS received no GT support and had no GT peers in his classes, he wasn't really enjoying school that much (even advanced work is fairly easy for him) and he had fewer & fewer friends with the same interests. If this lady had not come forward to help me, having observed my son over the years, I'm convinced he would have simply repeated 5th grade with no GT support from the school. Or we likely would have had to send him to a private school ($$!), though our district is highly rated and generally out-paces the few private schools in the area.
In hindsight, I know that we've failed him as parents in this key area, but - at the time - I knew nothing about GT and thought the school would surely have ID'd him if there was reason to do so.
I have now signed up DS for Explore test, but he won't be able to take it until Jan 2012! I've also signed him up to take a CTY test, but have to schedule time at the testing center. The school sends home periodic notes to GT kids' parents, so I found out about these tests thru the school.
In all my reading/learning, I'm fairly convinced that DS13 is also GT. The school never ID'd him, either. MAP scores are same as DS2, he's in Duke TIP now (eligible to go to summer camps for ACT score last year but cost is prohibitive) and he took SAT yesterday. So he has done fine w/out GT program. However, it IS a wonderful program (once the child gets in) and it would have been a very nice opportunity for DS13.
Your thoughts/advice are welcome, too. I'm somewhat embarrassed to post because all my learning has shown some serious parental failure and we do actually try hard to be good parents.
