Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Would you take a skip if offered?

I think they stay put after the first two months unless a spot opens up in their neighborhood school. Then they are given the option to stay put or take the spot.

The same kids can potentially be overloaded again the next year (unless some hapless soul moves into the district and has a more recent enrollment date.)

Cathy

Can you look at past years to get an idea of if the child faces this "overload" thing year after year? My guess would be that many kids do move into the district, and it would be unusual to be bounced year after year.

Reason I'm asking, is, that depending on the kid, and you know yours best, being bounced around for one year in 2nd grade for two months or less, wouldn't be more than a temporary inconviences. I think the kids are young enough that they follow the teacher's lead. For my own son, changing schools every few weeks would have been fine, if it was explained to him upfront that it was going to happen, and why.

That last chance to switch to the neighborhood school sounds both appealing and scary. One one hand, being offered a spot in the room of the least wanted teacher isn't appealing, on the other hand, being able to leave a bad situation without penalty is appealing. Too bad they won't cluster the "skippers" together as they travel from school to school.

Smiles,
Trinity

As you can imagine, this is not a popular policy with the parents. Every year it is the subject of heated debate in school board meetings. It all comes down to finances. Using this scheme, all the classrooms in all the schools are near 100% capacity. That way the district employs only as many teachers as necessary and maintains only as many buildings as necessary. Yes, the teachers are jerked around like the students and moved from school to school or "let go" to maintain optimum efficiency.