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I really worry that you will be trading one set of concerns for a much bigger one if you switch to the school you describe. An "alternative" school with low scores may not give your daughter the intellectual stimulation she needs. She may gain a false sense of feeling good about herself, because she is a top student, but may be bright enough to recognize that the kids she is comparing herself to are not doing well academically. It may be difficult for her to find friends.

I think some meds work well for some kids with ADD-Inattentive. You could give meds a try and see what she thinks. Otherwise, she may benefit from a "coach" or special instruction in ways to make herself focus and reduce the daydreaming. I am not sure that giving her easier work will make it more likely she will focus. She will still have to come up with the "right" answer.

High school does get easier. While in math you have to show your work to get partial credit (otherwise a wrong answer is just a wrong answer), there is probably less emphasis on methodolgy and more on understanding (multiply any way you like, do not have to use the lattice method for example). In Lang. Arts a student may have to follow steps: note cards, outline, rough draft, final draft, which some kids find excruciating. However, there may be more room for, and even encouragment of, divergent thinking.

The other thing you can do is get a special ed plan in place for your dd if she has an ADD diagnosis and gifted IQ scores. Perhaps she can be excused from certain busy work or allowed to work in her own way. Unfortunately, however, to some extent she will have to learn to work within the system both for school and eventually for most kinds of work.

Good luck

504 plans are what they do for 2e kids here. Dd has 99.9th percentile IQ scores and an ADD and anxiety disorder dx from a psych. At this point, her school seems unwilling to do a 504, though, b/c they feel that the things the psych suggested, such as oral testing, would be something all students would benefit from and it would be unfair to give them just to her.

If I were sure that there were a specific accommodation that were likely to help her, I'd push for it anyway, but I honestly don't know what is likely to help. She did have an A- in the GT reading class on her report card and did well on a recent math mid-term (A- with the few extra points the teacher will give them for making test corrections). She isn't doing poorly, per se, in these GT/subject accelerated classes overall. She's just erratic and doesn't feel successful. The GT teacher is willing to try letting her test in a separate room to minimize distractions and so she doesn't focus so much on when everyone else is finishing and turn in her paper at that point whether she's done or not.

I did set up a shadow day next week for her at school A as well.

Sorry to repeatedly reply, but I wanted to address this as well. We've found in the past that when we place her in non-GT/accelerated classes, she can get As easily despite her focus being no better b/c the work is easy enough that she doesn't need to pay attention to quickly pull out the answer if needed. Even if she is overlooking parts of directions on tests and losing some points for that, she has so many A+ grades that they provide the cushion needed to keep her in the A range. Having her get easy As isn't necessarily my goal, though, and I don't know that it will build legitimate confidence.

Interesting, as my child with ADD-Inattentive still had trouble getting As in easier classes due to not turning in HW or making some silly mistakes.

You are correct that a 504 plan will probably not solve the fundamental problem of focus and doing well on tests. The first school sounds perfect to me (the one with the in-between track). My youngest is in 8th grade. He was in a math track that had them do 6-7 grade math in 2 years and HS geometry in 8th grade. He fell off the tracks a bit last year and although he understood the material, really did not grasp the material at a deep level. This showed on the tests, along with silly mistakes common to a 12yo boy.

Knowing how challenging our HS honors math is (many kids drop down) and not wanting to have a tutor for years on end, we decided to drop him a level in math. He is now in the accelerated 8th grade math, but finds it too easy. He said that while the one day per topic approach last year (probably exaggerated to some extent), he also did not need the one week per topic approach of this years class. An intermediate approach would be great.

As other have said, I would not let her make this choice. I agree (as I said above) that School C sounds like a bad choice. Hopefully, you can get her to see the problems with that school. Can you get a school counselor or a teacher to talk to her?

This is also a tough age. Hopefully, things will work out as she gets ab it older.

Dd shadowed @ school A yesterday and really liked it which was great. She shadowed a girl who was in the accelerated 7th grade math and also said that she thought it wasn't too hard. She doesn't like Everyday Math, the curriculum they use in the elementary (and for the 6th grade math she's doing), so maybe she'll like the different math curriculum the middle schools use better.

So, if she gets in, I think that we'll go with school A. Now, here's the problem: at the open house, we were told that there was a very good chance we'd get her in. When I picked her up, the woman at the school who was arranging the shadows told me that she was pretty sure dd wouldn't get in b/c we are out of district. She said to be patient and that, if by lottery she places at a decent place on the waiting list, she might get in as late as August (the month school starts), but we're going to have to choose another school in the meantime since it sounds like this one isn't a guarantee.

I'm putting out prayers that dd gets blessed and gets in, though. Think good thoughts for her!

If your child qualifies under Section 504 due to her disability, they can't legally refuse to give your child accommodations that she NEEDS just because they don't give them to non-disabled students who WANT them. The difference between NEED and WANT is a crucial one here.

I would suggest that you check out www.wrightslaw.com if you haven't already. I feel for you and your daughter.

That's what we found too, especially for the 'erratic class work' sort of thing.
Best Wishes,
Grinity

I can tell that at least the GT coordinator is kind of done with me for now. I know that I've been a pain this year and I'm sure that part of it is due to my frustration with how much better the services are for high achieving kids than for underachieving gifted kids.

That aside, I am really putting my focus on getting dd into the best placement for next year and just getting through the rest of this year. I'm working with her quite a bit at home on memory and study techniques b/c she seems to need a lot more help in that area than her sister has. We'll see how her latest tests came out, but it seems like her grades are coming out somewhat better at the moment.

I do realize that they can't say no to the 504 but I just don't know if it will help enough to warrant my continuing to harrass them. If my working with her can keep her grades @ a reasonably high enough place, I think that's just where we're going to leave it for the rest of the year and not worry about the fact that she isn't getting any accommodations at school.

If we can start fresh with a new school next year, I'll regroup and reconsider the 504 at that point. The dx is recent enough that they'll still have to honor it for a 504.

At the suggestion of others, I am trying to plead dd's case with school A in the hopes that they'll cut her some slack and let her in. Her homeroom teacher also offered to put in a good word for her there.

The school choice applications were due by last Friday so notices of acceptance/wait listing are starting to be sent out. All schools are closed today due to freezing temps (-15F) so I don't expect to get any further word today, but here's what we got yesterday:

Dd12 got into the only high school she applied to (which is fortunate!). The HS is within blocks of middle schools A & B. Dd10 got into school B and we haven't heard anything from schools A or C. I do know other parents who are in district who got "yes"es from school A yesterday. At least one of them plans to turn it down in favor of school B, so maybe that will open up a few more spots.

Hopefully we'll hear something more tomorrow.

good luck! waiting for responses sounds a little stressful.