Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Intradistrict Transfer for a Class

Not sure if this is the right place to post this but I usually hang out here so here it goes. Does anyone know anything about Intradistrict transfer for a class? Or, can someone point me to where I can get more info? Does anyone have any experience with it?

DS's accelerated math teacher is a nightmare (I have posted before about her). I hate how she is destroying my son's love of math. She hates my son. I can not imagine him having her again all next year, which he will if he stays in accelerated. However there is nowhere for him to go in his school because the class just below is WAY below his level and also has too many students as it is. There is another elementary school in our district literally 5minutes away. They have the same accelerated class (in fact, the parent meeting for my son's the accelerated math class was held at the other school in conjunction with and run by the accelerated teacher there. I hear she is excellent. My son's teacher is horrible and there have been several complaints about her oer the years and apparently nothing is done.

I am desperate. Any info or insight would be appreciated! And does anyone know if DYS could help with this? Should I contact a consultant?

Our district occasionally buses kids to another school, like to the middle school for math if they are in elementary and need advanced classes (and the one kid I know who does this only got it after a fight), but I have never heard of anything being done just because a parent or student doesn't like the teacher. If by some miracle you got that approved, you would probably have to provide your own transportation.

I seriously would transport him at this point.

Yeah, I guess it is a dream because I am sure a number of students would be doing if they could and I am sure the school doesn't want that.

Still I want to explore the possibility. You never know until you try!

Would you want to transfer him completely, or just transport him for one class? Our district allows students to apply to enroll in schools outside their neighborhood school *if* the school they want to attend isn't at full enrollment - you don't have to have a specific reason to apply for the neighborhood exception. You might want to double-check and see if there's any rule such as that in your area. I do know a few families here who have enrolled their elementary school students in an outside-neighborhood-school due to differences in level of support for SPED services.

Best wishes,

polarbear

I would imagine you would have to change schools entirely. Could he do maths on line?

I think that this is the best option - because, I am not sure that you can tell the administrator your real reason for asking for math at the other school - what can you possibly say - that this teacher is bad/not doing her job/not treating your DS fairly? If you did, then it makes the admin of the school look bad - as if they are not in control of the situation - to such an extent that people are moving to other schools for a single subject due to the poorly run math program?

Since the other school is very close to you and the math program is what you would like, why not transfer to that school and move on? I am sure that it is a winning solution for your DS.

Well, this is the reality. And apparently this math instructor and math program have been a problem for awhile. Maybe if this started happening he would do something about it! The word on the street is the admin of the school already does look bad due to this teacher. The math teacher is horrible.

Anyway, my DS will not want to move entirely. He is finally really taking off socially at this school and is very happy there. He has a good scribe, good resource teacher, good friends, good regular teacher. Good gifted teacher. They all know him well and are all (with the exception of the math teacher) very familiar with his twice-exceptionalities and are all on board completely with his iep. and accommodations It would be horrible to transfer him completely his last year before middle school.

Anyway, I hit the roof yesterday because bad math teacher took three points off DS's test because he did not put dollar signs in his final answer (this dragged that particular test grade down to a "basic".) He did have the dollar signs in his explanations. However the test is scribed for him so he says he said "dollars" but the scribe didn't put the symbol every time. Each and every problem was otherwise perfect - and explained beautifully and she marked every one wrong because of one missing dollar sign here and there!! And I found out she has been targeting him in class every day. She also tests on methods and things that are not in the curriculum and that she does not teach. I have already sent a number of emails about this woman and her poor teaching and organization to the teacher with the principal cc'ed ... He already knows there is a problem. with us. I have been told he has had many parents upset about her over the years. DS's resource teacher has already talked to said math teacher about how she targets DS in class. Clearly that has only made her worse. Grade-wise she can not get him out of the class (perhaps that is why she is taking points off for minor insignificant non-math reasons) so I think her approach is to make it painfully clear every single day to DS and to his classmates that he does not belong there. Eventually, he will feel so badly he will beg to leave. Apparently, she has used this approach a number of times in the past. Incidentally, from what I can tell she always targets a boy!!! This year my DS is her target. So, on top of her horrible teaching she targets him every class.

So I fired off another email to teacher and prinicipal and now we are having a meeting. DS has an IEP for dyspraxia/dysgraphia but also for anxiety,which has not been an issue in years but it is still in his iep. I am guessing that is what I will have use as my basis for getting this woman to stop targeting DS.

Sorry for the rant. Looks like I will have to quit my job so I can attend 16plus meetings and a million emails and phone calls with the school. Because I AM NOT PULLING him - now we are determined that he is not going to be driven out of this class. We had SUCH a great year last year - no meetings, no issues, DS thrived and was ahppy ... I got to concentrate fully on working... sigh

So does anyone know - can I somehow make some sort of iep accommodation (or SDI or whatever) that teacher can not call on him if he is not raising his hand? Apparently she just harasses him all class by calling on him constantly and he chokes b/c he is embarrassed and simply has not processed the all the information (his words!) as he has very low processing speed. And she just makes an example after example out of him. This is fourth grade people - not law school ... 4th grade accelerated math ... 9 year olds. And other kids are raising their hands wanting to answer and she keeps picking on DS in order to show every one how stupid he is. Grrrrrr

This all sounds very stressful! Where are you hearing all this information? From DS, or the scribe, or other kids/parents/teachers?
I know you're working but can you take a couple of afternoons off to sit in on this class? If it were me I'd take turns with DH to turn up randomly to the class during the year just to let her know you're onto her and you're watching her. (Sit menacingly in the back, pointing from your eyes to her … ) I like to see for myself whatever DD complains about - and it always turns out she's right.
I'm not sure either whether your DS should have to put up with all this just because you're determined not to let her "win" and drive him away Good luck with the meeting