Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Just WOW

Umm.... I have heard our school district is awful for gifted students (DD is 2 and 1/2 so not in school yet) but already has mastered 3/4 of end of year K4 skills and 1/2 of end of year K5 skills. I had been holding out some hope even after talking to numerous people who have said negative things about our district, but after reading this....I was just WOW, yeah I can see why they are not good for gifted students.

This is their policy as stated for Learning Enrichment/Gifted Support

"As much as possible, the activities and services provided shall be integrated within the regular education program allowing for the inclusion of able learners and minimizing the need for Individualized Gifted Support Services IEPs."

Umm, just wow...minimizing the need for gifted IEPs Needless to say I am not holding out much hope for our district after reading this.

This isn't an unusual approach, after all, it 'saves money' and if mainstreaming is good for kids with much lower than average abilities, than shouldn't it also be good for kids with much higher than average abilities.

I think that the position of not holding much hope is a good one, but there is always the possiblity that whoever has the power at the moment will 'get' your situation and make resources availible. In a way, that policy might be a treasure for highly gifted kids. It is almost as if they are acknowledging that although they can meet the needs of most gifted kids through inclusion, there are gifted kids who have needs that can't be met this way.



could be really good for the PG kids. And if the school has a lot of bright kids, then it might be true that most moderatly gifted kids can have their needs met in the regular classroom. KWIM?

Afterall, they could have written:
The activities and services provided shall be integrated within the regular education program allowing for the inclusion of able learners and eliminating the need for Individualized Gifted Support Services IEPs."


Dreamily,
Grinity

Your right. I can hope LOL, although our school district is awful, almost every school is underperforming. My husband's job brought us here, it was a wonderful opportunity for him, so we will make the best of it. I think recently dh has started to really see that DD educational needs are beyond the norm and he has become very open to thinking outside the box so to speak for her. One day at a time just have to see what it will bring