After barely missing the cutoff three years ago, my kiddo finally qualified for gifted in our state. He'll qualify for accelerated content in his core classes but still be allowed his accommodations in the IEP, so it is a win-win-win-win-win!

And for those of you who being told things that just don't sound right about your child, trust your gut. It has taken seven years and four rounds of testing to prove what I have known about him since he was a wee one. Had I accepted some of the opinions of some of the experts he saw over the years, he wouldn't have the opportunity to have appropriately challenging content next year. In fact, the neuropsych he saw this past summer tried to tell us his IQ was 90 and that we shouldn't set him up for failure but should be helping him prepare for jobs that would require manual labor. (Yes, that one still makes me mad a year and a half later.)

So if you see something that isn't coming out on paper due to the learning disabilities, persist in advocating.

Right now, I'm over the moon. I'm sure we'll have plenty of battles ahead dealing with what they'll allow for gifted and what they won't, but for today I'm just concentrating on my happy dance.

Great News!!!

Is this a result of finding the 2E program in your district?

The test did not have accommodations, but I think having a diagnostician who had experience in gifted with learning disabilities - something the 2E Program set it motion - made a big difference. And having them watching over the process has meant the school has bent over backwards to get the testing in motion. We requested it a year and a half ago, and it never happened. But once they were involved, the testing happened within 3 months.

YAY Lisa!!!! That is WONDERFUL news!!!

Congratulations to you for hanging in there and advocating for your ds through so many challenges and roadblocks!

polarbear

He is so happy, polarbear. That is what makes me happiest.

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Lisa, so happy for you and your DS.

DeeDee

I love this story with a happy ending!! Kudos to you for not giving up and trusting your own perceptions.

Congrats! To you and your son! How exciting!

Of course, the celebration is going to be short lived. The Special Ed teacher said to me yesterday, "You know, it's going to be different in the gifted classes, they're not going to want to accept the accommodations, because pretty soon they're going to say it isn't really gifted at all."

Argghhh

I agree with MON. The HGT teachers understand my 2e (dyslexia) son much better than the traditional teachers. They see quirky kids all the time and they see his intellect despite his poor handwriting and often careless mistakes in math.

Ditto. My DD's GT teacher once said to me, we "get" quirky here and that probably half the kids in the class are some kind of undiagnosed "2e". She often tells me that even though DD struggles with the writing requirements, the GT classroom is the place DD needs to be. She said that a traditional teacher probably would misjudge DD's intellect based on her inability to spell and less than perfect penmanship.

Thanks for letting me know your experiences. That puts my mind at ease a bit.

As so often, I agree with MON. One of our gifted teachers had never been to an IEP meeting in 30+ years of teaching. But she really, really got DS, quirks and all; she was firm and fair with him and it really worked.

So much depends on the individual teacher, but so far our experience is that gifted ed. teachers are invested in out-of-the-box kids, and that it can work well.

Don't panic yet, ABQ!

DeeDee

*happy dance*
Persistance overcomes resistance!
Good job mamma!