Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Looking for context

Our district has kids take a cognitive test and they don't notify parents of test scores or gifted id for several months. I'm not sure what the big deal is, since all they do is plug scores into a computer system anyway. But everything is so dysfunctional and disorganized. DD messed up her CogAT test (she left half of it blank) and her CogAT bore no resemblance to her WISC IV scores obtained privately, so I had to send about 10 different emails to various people in administration and they all said "I don't know, talk to X." By the end of it, everyone hated me (but I did get her CogAT score finally spoiled and the WISC IV entered instead). There seems to be very little accountability for people in school district jobs. They do a good job and do things in a timely fashion if/when they feel like it. Some people are wonderful, but I have come across so many people who can't be bothered. Good luck--I hope you get it sorted out soon.

Wow, I'm sorry. That sounds terrible.

Thanks...

You may wish to check your state laws/policies and also your school board policies (often found online on your school or district website).

For context, I'm aware of some schools/districts which are ensuring they achieve equal outcomes, including the equal representation of students identified as gifted, in proportion to the school/district population, by demographic. Unfortunately, this may involve quotas, and result in excluding some gifted children in order to maintain the prescribed ratios, or delaying the recognition of some children's qualifying scores until a time when acknowledging their scores fits with the school's prescribed demographic quotas. For example quotas and ratios can be maintained by these scenarios:
- A gifted child with the same demographic profile leaves the school/program/grade level, allowing the deferred child to be identified as gifted as a replacement for the child who left.
- One or more children with other demographic profiles are identified as gifted, allowing the deferred child to be acknowledged as gifted, as the combination of newly identified/acknowledged students maintains the prescribed balance of demographic profiles.

How much of this have you put in writing? I'd suggest first determining for certain what your district policy is re gifted id (either through the previous conversations you've had or by finding the written policy), and then putting together an email stating that you want your ds to be considered for gifted id, you've attached/included his private testing which places him at x% which qualifies him, and ask that they respond to your request before (pick a date that is 10 business days out). Send this all in via email. Address the email to either the principal at your school or the gifted coordinator for your school, and cc the district's supervisor or head of gifted education.

If the time frame *does* drag out, you have evidence that you submitted his testing before November. My guess is that if they generally accept outside testing, they will still accept this set of testing. If they don't generally accept outside testing, you're probably going to have to go through the district testing no matter what. If your ds is retested and for some reason doesn't qualify, then you advocate again, thinking through the reasons that the second test results might have differed and documenting why the first test should be used. Hopefully you won't have to do that!

Anyway, if you haven't made a written request yet, send the email with test results included today

Best wishes,

polarbear

ps - make your email brief, to-the-point, and polite

Agreed. Do not mention or bemoan delays encountered to-date.

Thanks! The written policy states they do accept outside testing. This was also confirmed when I spoke with the district AIG office.

I've tried to do as much as possible via email, but the school AIG teacher always calls me back on the phone. At times I have replied to the previous thread with "As you mentioned on the phone, I plan to do blah and we will follow up by blah..." kind of thing, CC-ing the classroom teacher in an effort to keep everyone on the same page.

Yesterday when I spoke with the district office I was so surprised at their take charge attitude about getting it cleared up that I forgot to ask them point blank if there were timelines set up in the process. Agh!

I got a call back yesterday at end of day letting me know they wouldn't be able to answer my questions that day (went to voicemail) so I assume they will talk to me as soon as they can get a hold of the teacher at the school. The district office seems very responsive.

But yes, I think you're right.

I guess I will call the district and just ask them if there is any policy on how long the process will take once testing is completed. Most of the documentation I see talks about having to nominate by the testing interval, since it's once a semester. Maybe the school wants to wait and process his results with everyone else's, so they're waiting until the other kids finish the testing?

3 weeks basically, until the results are invalid. At this point maybe asking directly if the results need to be submitted by us by one year from the test or if they can only be considered in the decision one year from the test would be useful as well.

As you can see, brief does not come naturally. But I have managed to do okay when interacting with the school!

Also, maybe not clear in what I said, but I emailed the results one month ago with the official request. There were follow up papers sent (with copies for us) with another step in the process a couple days later.

Okay, spoke with the district again. They keep acting as though it is very strange that it's taking the school teacher this long. They asked for the test scores themselves and I sent them in directly. Once they approve them they will send them back to the school with the "approved" tag on them.

I have no idea how working with the school AIG teacher will be going forward, but I think it's safe to assume his scores are considered submitted on time at this point.

The district coordinator said it is their best practices to try to finish the process in 30 days. It is not typical for it to take an entire semester.

I spoke with my son's teacher this week and she expressed a lot of frustration with the AIG teacher. According to her she went out of her way to go ask the AIG teacher when my son would be evaluated and the AIG teacher said "not yet" or something to indicate she didn't feel it was time to do that.

So much for the AIG teacher being his advocate and making sure the classroom teacher is differentiating. This AIG teacher seems to want nothing to do with my child at all, it's so very frustrating. Thank goodness his classroom teacher has a positive attitude, there seem to be AIGish peers in his classroom, and we weren't expecting a lot of services to begin with... but, ugh.

I will email the central office again tomorrow and find out what's up I suppose.

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I'm no expert but I wouldn't start forwarding incriminating emails to other staff just to get people in trouble, I'm sure no good can come from that. Like Spaghetti says you've let her know you're well-informed and watching her every move You probably just want to keep jollying her along now rather than get into a blame storm so I'd keep it reasonably light by saying something like you weren't aware after talking to teacher that writing the IDEP was underway but if that's the case please make sure you're involved.

What AvoCado said, I think. In her mind, maybe "in the process of" means "it's on my list for next week."

Now that she says she's submitted the scores online, does that take care of the expiration issue? (Might be worth confirming that the Central Office has them, though.)

In general, when people lie to me, I get better results from confusion than anger. If you say, "Really? When I talked to his teacher on Monday, she said she was waiting for you on the IDEP. Could you please circle back with her, just to be sure that she's not waiting for you to do something while you're waiting for her to do something?"

Then do call the central office and confirm that she scores have actually been submitted online. If they haven't, email her, and tell her, "The central office still doesn't have his scores, but I know that you told me you submitted them. Could you please double check with them and make sure they went through? I know these electronic systems can be really confusing."

Thanks for keeping me on the constructive side of things.

I have an email into the central office asking about the details on the scores. I'm hoping at the very least that is taken care of but they didn't really answer the question last time I asked. They just said it would only take a few days once they had the scores.

Also, it's really hard not to take this personally.

I can't remember the last time an adult lied to me. It's really disrespectful.

Focusing on the outcome and what will get us there. Sigh.

Okay, unrelated, BUT. I'm so excited I just signed my son up for his first Super Saturday!

They had a math session and a lego session that he will absolutely love.

Hoping to enjoy a single day that isn't an uphill battle and hoping to get some in person support from other parents trying to navigate the district's system.

Angie, I wouldn't take this personally at all. Chances are that whatever is behind the situation here (could be laziness, could be not caring, could simply be a person who is overworked in a part time job, could be any number of reasons)... but chances are it has nothing to do with you or your ds personally - other parents are probably receiving the same type of responses/non-responses. If the issue behind this is an incompetent teacher who isn't straightforward and tries to cover her own tracks... chances are the district is aware of it because chances are it's happened before.

I do think that things will be ok - even on the off chance that at some point the district came back and said your ds needs to be retested because scores are older than one year, you have these email conversations now to prove the scores were submitted within one year. If you stick to your advocacy to use these scores, they most likely will use them. Administering another test would cost the district staff time and money. The AIG teacher also said in the email above that your ds would be id'd as gifted in math and reading, so if there's any question, bring that email back up at that point in time and ask what has changed.

I also wouldn't forward emails to the teacher/etc just to prove someone is not being honest. Keep your focus on advocating for your ds, be polite, be respectful yourself even if you feel like you aren't receiving respect, and just keep advocating. Rather than focus so much on the expiration of test scores when advocating, I'd also try to turn the focus to what your ds needs at school in terms of academics and why identification as gifted is important now, not later.

Best wishes,

polarbear

Thanks. You're right, I know.

Right now he doesn't need anything, honestly. I was just trying to get him identified and get to know the school support staff, for when he does need something.

Maybe it's good in the sense that I now have realistic expectations. It certainly didn't build up the trust in each other that I was hoping for when I started the process.

I'm really hoping for single subject acceleration for math next year in 1st. I can't even imagine what that will take after this experience. But that's a completely different topic.

I was hoping it would be straightforward since there is a framework for it built into the district policies, but I can see now that even following existing processes can take a lot of work.

I think you're right. It was a disappointing process, but I think it'll be okay and we're going to get it worked out. Thanks again for the perspective, it is helpful.

I guess it's not the end of the world if he gets retested, as long as they pay for it. :P. I think he'd score better the second time around, honestly. Seems like SUCH a waste though, yikes.

They will need to use a different test.

Yep. Of course he would have to wait to turn 6 to take the WISC. Ahhhh well. Hopefully not an issue.

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Research the legal timeframe - for either your state or your school district (not all states and school districts have mandated gifted ed, so whether or not there is a guideline for timeframe will depend on where you are).

I suspect that what will happen is the teacher and gifted ed teacher will put together a draft IEP and then meet with you to discuss. They may present it as a "final" but you can absolutely give input toward it when you meet.

Best wishes,

polarbear

Still waiting on IDEP but he is now (a whole week ahead of the big deadline! :)) officially identified AIG.

As a result of nominating our son, another student has been nominated (the classroom teacher noticed they were both at a different level than the rest of the class) and both of them will receive some specific programming. Happy to see they are actually trying to nominate kids and also happy my son will have a peer in class going through this with him.

Those poor parents, though, they will now have to go through this same process with the AIG teacher.