Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Help with grade acceleration

We are in FL and are in the process of advocating for a whole grade acceleration from K to 1st for our DD5. We have been met with quite a bit of resistance and what appears from the outside to be administrators making arbitrary decisions. When we started the process for whole grade acceleration it was very clear the school didn't know what to do with the request. We have asked numerous times for clarification / documentation and have yet to be provided with much. On the flip side we have been asked to do a lot of waiting and "trusting the process" which I am beginning to believe does not exist, or is being put together just for our request. Does anyone have any BTDT advice for us?

My first advice would be to look up any district and/or state guidelines for whole-grade acceleration. And then I'd caution you on that, because the policy we found in our case did not match up with practice.

One way to probe the school's intent and the existence of a process is to send a friendly email to the principal (or other official leading the meetings) to ask if they could provide you with a quick overview of the process, and ask where your DD's case currently stands in it. Their response should be telling.

As for BTDT... we found ourselves banging our heads against a wall, to put it simply. No member of the school or district would ever favor a grade acceleration, and therefore, nothing productive could come from anything DW and I could do. The school mismatch was causing my DD significant psychological problems (perfectionism, self-harm, explosive anger, social isolation, etc), so we ended up yanking her out and homeschooling twice, then returning her to public school when she was eligible for something better.

The first time, we pulled her from K and returned her the following year as a first-grader, when full GT was available. The second time, we yanked her out of second (DD managed to make it through first), registered her with our state as a third grade homeschool student, gave her the 3rd grade state achievement test at the end of the year, and presented her to the school the following year with a take-her-or-leave-her proposition... she's in fourth, or she's done with you.

So, from a school support perspective, this was a worst-case scenario, but we were able to make it work anyway, because homeschooling was an option.

My advice is to study the ACCEL law. Go into your school district and say specifically that you want to see every district policy paper they have in regards to their compliance with the ACCEL law. You are exercising the rights of your child to access what is promised in the ACCEL law and it needs to be done immediately.

You can read about it on the FL doe website searching gifted and ACCEL.

My point is keep saying ACCEL and read all the state and district info about it and insist that they follow it.

My son needed subject acceleration and the school just couldn't figure out the logistics I just kept saying yes he does. And so they offered a whole grade skip instead and we took it. Bringing up ACCEL was the magic key to the kingdom.

Does their process include the Iowa Acceleration Scale (IAS)? You'll also find lots of good information on the website of Institute for Research and Policy on Acceleration (IRPA).

http://info.fldoe.org/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-6465/dps-2012-111.pdf

Here is some good information.

Where your DD was at is the slippery slope we are currently headed down. DD has one of those chameleon personalities and is a teacher pleaser so we seem a bit like crazy parents when we talk about what is going on with DD emotionally at home. DD's personalty has led the school to be a bit skeptical of her abilities. So we are considering pulling her and homeschooling like you did for your DD. Did you just give the end of year state test or did you also do additional achievement tests?

Where your DD was at is the slippery slope we are currently headed down. DD has one of those chameleon personalities and is a teacher pleaser so we seem a bit like crazy parents when we talk about what is going on with DD emotionally at home. DD's personalty has led the school to be a bit skeptical of her abilities. So we are considering pulling her and homeschooling like you did for your DD. Did you just give the end of year state test or did you also do additional achievement tests?

Unfortunately not. I purchased it myself and DD is a great candidate. I had a conversation with the head of the gifted program (the academics themselves, not the students in the program) for my county and she was familiar with the scale. She said she didn't believe anyone else in the district even knew of the IAS and encouraged me not to share it with my principal until the end of this school year. She is one of the many who encouraged me to "trust the process." It is so frustrating that such a powerful tool is so readily ignored.

I have brought up ACCEL to the principal. The whole team are all aware that I know what they *should* be doing, but I just don't believe they have the procedure in place. I tried to be their partner and figure this out together, but was still left in the dark.

Currently the principal has denied the skip based on a SESAT math score which is 2+ SD below what I have on both my WJ's (6 months apart). I actually find it quite funny this was the score that held her back because after we did the WJ's I had decided to homeschool and so DD did EPGY. She finished the 2nd grade curriculum in no time, so such a poor score can only be reflective of the absolute chaos she was tested under. I have asked of they will consider a new math achievement test (WIAT or KETA) that I will pay to have administered. They have already said they will not administer it themselves, even though the school psychologist said she would have no problem doing it. I'd love any other information you would care to share about your experience - nuances of ACCEL that made a difference in your advocacy process.

This advocacy process feels like a three ring circus and I am so thankful for this board for a bit of sanity!

I have seen this and have thought to bring it to an advocacy meeting but I didn't want to be seen as condescending But maybe I should!

Bring it...I would call DOE and get to someone in gifted/ACCEL compliance and file a complaint...can you scan her scores in case the person needs you to attach them to an email (not an entire psych report but just the scores).


... I worked through our district gifted coordinator. After I explained the history of my sons development (short version) and the fact that he had already completed the entire third grade math book under the instruction of his 2nd grade teacher and he wasn't going to do third grade math a second time and I read to her his iq score that the district had on file and the additional WJ scores that I went and got privately...she was completely on board for finding a way to make his acceleration work. She was the one who fixed it.

We had her sit the state test at her local public school, and we also paid for her to sit the Stanford-Binet 10 achievement test outside of it.

It may have been overkill, since the state test (iLEAP) was one they were familiar with, they knew the test conditions, so they knew there were no shenanigans, and the scores were excellent across the board. The SB10 basically just repeated what the iLEAP said.

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