Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Home Schooling Question

My DD7 is currently in 1st grade and we are trying to get her accelerated into 3rd next year. Our principal is the final approving authority and has indicated that she really doesn't believe in it. She has agreed to meet with us next week to discuss. We asked to meet with her alone and then the following day would meet with group (current teachers, gifted specialist, principal).

I got to admit I'm not to keen on the idea of homeschooling, not totally opposed either. If the school denies the request for grade acceleration it is an option I would consider. My question is once I home school for a while if I went back to the school how do they decide what grade she would be in then. How long would I need to home school her before I could convince them she is ready for a grade above her chronological age? Could I homeschool simply long enough to force them to recognize a whole grade acceleration?

Unfortunately that all depends on the school... and if the principal is the same one, it doesn't sound hopeful.

Officially, in NC (where I am), the principal gets the final say on all grade placements -- they could theoretically put a teenager in kindergarten. I've never heard of it done, but it's not illegal or anything. Generally they place kids according to their age, which is one of the reasons we're planning on homeschooling for the long term here...

One thing you might consider is homeschooling up to a transition point - like homeschool 3rd-5th grades so you can approach the middle school instead of the elementary school (if 6th is the entry point for middle school there...) That would get you past the current principal anyway.

One of our options here is to wait until DS could reasonably be accomodated in high school and call him a 9th grader then. I'm not holding out much hope just because of what I know about our local schools, but in some districts (or even in some of our private schools or charter schools here) it might be a good approach.

In my county, it's up to the school. When I talked to the TD department at our School Board they said that technically they could send him back to Kindergarten because he didn't finish (we pulled him in March of last year) and my records of work at home aren't required to count. She said more likely, he would just be put in with his age mates, but it would be completely up to the principal to make that decision.

I would suggest calling the School Board and ask how they handle a homeschool child re-enrolling if the child has been working ahead, since your county might handle things differently.

Hi,
I'm in NC too! A lot of policy here really depends on the county as the state mandate for gifted students is very vague.

As I understand the rules in our area, they place a child according to testing results. I'm not sure, however, if that's the testing I gave my child or some testing the school administers before they place him. (I'd probably assume the latter...and I'd assume they'd expect 100% right or they'd place him pretty darn close to at-age-level.)

I have to ask, though: if your school's principal does stand in the way of a needed grade skip for your DD and you pull her out for homeschooling, why would you put her back in the same school?

We homeschool, and we have considered putting DS7 in a *different* school at some point in time, but when we realized that our local school wasn't going to be willing to meet his needs this year, we pretty much eliminated them as an option for the future, barring some major change in policy or administration.

Is there something I'm missing? Why would you send her back under the circumstances?

Kriston, We are really stuck with our assigned home school if we chose public schools. There are few exceptions for reassignment to other schools and they are usually undesired schools. We can't afford private so it doesn't leave many options. The principal being reluctant to grade skip I think is due to two things 1) her not believing in it and 2) the district not have any set criteria for it, but rather leaving it up to the principal. I think she would rather err on the side of caution. I think if we could come back from homeschooling at some point and there was a set criteria used to determine what grade she should be placed in, that would be easier for the principal. Maybe though I'm just wishful thinking.

I think what I would do after HSing is have the school administer the end of year test for the age-grade child would be going into. Then have the next grade level test administered if the first test was high enough - get an agreement on what the cut=off is beforehand.

What someone told me she did for her son, since nothing was going to happen at K-5, that when it was time to move to the middle school for 6th grade, at the end of 5th grade, she had the district administer the end of year 6th grade test which he aced. So he was accelerated to 7th grade upon entering Middle School.