So we had the staffing meeting for DD5 today. Here in Florida, an "IEP" is for special ed; gifted students get an "EP." So here's how the conversation went:

STAFFING SPECIALIST: What is DD's area of academic giftedness?

ME: Math, science, reading, and language arts.

STAFFING SPECIALIST: You can only pick one.

ME: But what if she's advanced in more than one area?

STAFFING SPECIALIST: The form only has room for one area of giftedness. Only an IEP has room for more writing.

ME: So I have to get her a learning disability, and then we can write out a more complete educational plan.

STAFFING SPECIALIST: No, since she's not disabled, she would have a section 504 form added to her EP.

ME: Well, should I get PG DS7 a diagnosis of ADHD so we can get a real IEP which has room for a complete educational plan?

STAFFING SPECIALIST: No, then we would have to have to provide ESE services to him.

ME: So I can only have an educational plan for one academic subject.

STAFFING SPECIALIST: right.

Please, someone, just kill me now.

LoL. That's so silly. "The form only has room for one.." Um, go get more forms?!?

Oh MAN, I wish I'd thought of that!

I only ever think of these responses for other people, of course!

Could the one area be "global giftedness"?

Alas, the "form" is on the computer, and the choices were from a drop-down menu. I'm still in shock.

At least you know what you are getting into. I would try to contact someone 'higher up' again and again. It's possible that whoever programmed the form wasn't creating that barrier on purpose and that the people at a high enough level to matter have no idea that this barrier is there.

This is a pretty good example of why, with all of the disadvantages of grade skipping, I prefer it to 'enrichment.' Human behavior is very prone to 'trotting down the same old path' even when conditions are quite unique.

Love and More Love,
Grinity

That's absurd. We are in FL too, Palm Beach County, I just pulled out DS7 EP and it does not have any one subject listed. It must be the EP either the particular school uses or the county uses. His is actually pretty general no specifics of any kind. We are under observation for 504 accomodations for ADHD.
I would definitely call the someone from the county's ESE dept to ask more about the EP.
Good Luck.
Whattodo

Thanks, whattodo. Must be a Miami-Dade thing, and as Grinity pointed out, perhaps the form was designed by someone who didn't consider the possibility that a child might need services for more than one field of interest.

I'm not as worried about DD5 -- although her IQ is 148, she's not one of those kids who needs constant intensity and always needing to be learning something new and in-depth. Her EP that we came up with today should serve her just fine for the next two years, until it expires.

DS7 on the other hand, IQ just a few points higher, is miserable in 1st grade. He is due for a new EP before next school year, and I'm going to try to get it done sooner. He truly needs acceleration in math/science/reading.

While we were waiting for photocopies, I asked the advice of the staffing specialist (it's not her fault the program is what it is). She suggested getting someone from Advanced Academics (from the school district office) to attend DS's EP meeting. DS7 will want to be there himself, which is fine.

I've been in touch with the Advanced Academics people recently, and am waiting for the woman to call me (she's on maternity leave so I can't call her at the office). I had lots of questions for her before this meeting, and even more now.

Oh, and here's something: One of the options for the EP form's "Specially designed instruction and curriculum modifications" section is "Curriculum Compacting." Who here can explain to me how they plan on achieving curriculum compacting when the teachers are required to follow the non-gifted pacing guides?

You can't make this stuff up. Almost makes me want to homeschool.

Yes the curriculum compacting is a joke. I am at the point where I want to take over the math instruction. DS7 skipped 1st and in second the class works out of the 3rd grade reading book, science and social studies are 2nd grade. He is doing 3rd grade math from the old book, not GO Math, but even though the teacher is supposed to be compacting, it consists mostly doing the even or odd number questions only instead of every question. I don't really like the book either, the instructions are confusing and he is challenged by the instruction and not the material. I really would like to just take over with Singpore Math and have him do homework at school during math time. Still thinking through how to approach this.

I signed DS up for EPGY today -- found a "learning community" in my neighborhood, so we could do open enrollment. He's going to be so excited!

Wow - that's exciting!

He loved it! Finished breakfast and got dressed early today so he could have time for another twenty minute EPGY session :-)

Whattodo -- I PM'd you.

Update . . .

I spoke with a woman from the Advanced Academic Department at Miami-Dade Public Schools. She was awfully nice to answer all of my myriad of questions, and I know this isn't her fault, but . . .

The E.P. in Miami-Dade county really does allow for only ONE area of "greatest academic strength." There is no way to add on to the E.P. in writing beyond what the computer program has a drop-down box for. So if I were to choose math over science (how does one make such a choice?), we have an EP for math which in no way provides for mandated acceleration in science or reading or anything else.

I asked repeatedly how I might be able to accomplish such a thing, and pretty much what I got was "talk to the teacher before school starts each year." The principal will help me until she resigns in a couple of years, but basically, that puts us at the mercy of the teacher each year -- either s/he'll have an interest or s/he won't.

Does anyone else's school district have a policy like this?

Okay after you do the drop down answer....what does the rest of the ep look like?...could you do goals and objectives to support the greatest area of strength?

So if you picked science...

A goal might be in science then
Goal 2 might be accelerated math to support his advanced science strength because the higher you get in science the more math you need
Goal 3 might be something associated with advanced reading to support his advanced science strength
Goal 4 might be ....see where I am going...word the goals and needs to reflect back on the stupid limitations placed on you.


If you are told you can't do that then I would cry BS. I have numbers you can call at the FL state level...and there is no law saying his ep has to be done on a computer.....they can hand write it and write whatever is appropriate for yourchild....and you can start quoting words off of the paper they give you called procedural safeguards about the next step you are supposed to take...no county WANTS to go to mediation. No county wants you to even consult an advocate or a lawyer...so if you say I would like to ajourn this meeting until my advocate and lawyer can attend unless you can figure out a way to address his global giftedness and not just one subject. I have faith that you (administration) can find a way around a computer limitation.

Looking at DD's EP.

There was a drop-down menu "Gifted Priority Educational Need: Student's Strength" from which you pick math, science, lang arts/english, or social studies.

Below that is a series of check-boxes for "Specially Designed Instruction and Curriculum Modifications." Pick as many as you like:

Acceleration through:
curriculum compacting
flexible grouping
research and independent study
content accleration

Enrichment through:
learning centers
problem-based learning
open-ended tasks
service learning/enrichment clusters

And that's it.

Now, on the next page, there is a place to include "individual and program goals/benchmarks," and in this box there was room for a few lines of actual text, plus a series of checkboxes for evaluation procedures.

I'd imagine that under individual goals, I could include math as a science goal. That's sneaky; I like it!

It's an awfully bizarre system they have here in Miami-Dade.

So I bumped into DS7's best friend's mother, who is a gifted staffing specialist in our district, and asked her about creating a more complete E.P.

Her answer was: there's no way to do it, but not to stress about that, because it's simply a bureaucratic piece of paper, and nobody really looks at those things.

Therefore, it seems to me, there is NO way at ALL to get an official educational plan that will change DS's life for the better -- even a good E.P. would just be ignored.

That's why I would ask for Math instead of science. Math is 'easier' for folks to check if 'accelerated content' is being given. As for science in elementary school - what is 2 time zero?

((Sarcasm Alert))

It's also why I love full grade skips - no one has to 'look at a piece of paper' or do anything different, they just do what they do.

Shrugs and more Shrugs,
Grinity

Hmmm.

Do you know some people who've done badly with grade-skip (socially or whatever), or has it all been success stories?

The school would be willing to move DS7 to third grade next year (from first this year), but not to fourth grade. If he's doing fourth grade work now, would the skip to third next year improve his life at all anyway?

edit: they might be willing, in addition, to let him go to 4th for math.

My feelings on this are that a skip is likely to help, even if the skip is not all the way to the level where your child could be working.

Some things to consider:

It is easier for a teacher to differentiate up one or two grades than it is to differentiate up three or four.

There is a much greater chance that there will be other students working at a fourth or fifth grade level in a third grade class than in a second grade class.

If your child has difficulty finding age peers who share interests, moving ahead may improve that and therefore improve the overall school experience even if the academic level and pace is still not quite right.

The larger the skip, the more likely that expectations for handwriting and organization will be developmentally inappropriate.

There is nothing stopping you from asking for another skip later if it still seems indicated.

What a lot of really great advice. Thank you all so much.