Just received a spot at a public school for the HG (99%+). Entered the lottery last spring out of frustration with current school which tracked my student as average, leading to anxiety of frustration by my student. Here’s the glitch — I would have pulled the studentin a heartbeat last spring. But, this fall, the student has risen to middle school and was able to test into a higher math class (his passion) and engage us some extracurriculars that are exciting (robotics, mathletes). It’s been the smoothest start to the school year in years. However, the current private school does not buy into acceleration and emphasizes achievement over intellect. Do I switch the student to the HG school? The HG school allows for individual acceleration (so they advertise) but has no extracurriculars or electives or my student’s friends. Long term, academically, it’s a far better fit. It’s a far better fit simply because they understand kids like my student (asynchrony, etc) and it would also provide opportunities/exposure to things like standardized testing (important for a student with performance anxiety). It’s also FREE! I think the thing that is troubling me the most is that I don’t think I’ll get the buy in from my kid and my kid will be unhappy. And if the whole point of this is to find an environment in which my child will thrive, maybe it’s not the right choice to pull my student from the current school?!?! Of course the new school is putting tons of pressure on us to decide tomorrow. And of course they won’t let us visit during the school day to see what the student body and classes are like (I am very curious about behavioral issues and dual diagnoses and how that manifests in the classroom only because I have a sensitive kid who will be overwhelmed by this and I’d also like to know more about the teachers).

Boy, does this sound familiar to us. Our daughter was also granted a seat in the local HG charter school. We were so torn because there's a private school almost next door where she has friends. It's expensive, but after talking with her new teacher at the private school, we ended up settling there. It turns out the teacher at the private school is certified in gifted education and actually taught four years at the HG charter school anyway. We are hoping that our seat will be available next year (just in case the private school doesn't work out).

My wife and I have been looking into buying something in PDX. Are you referring to PDX's "ACCESS" program?

We declined a gifted program placement and stayed in a little private school where my child is very happy this year. He didn't want to leave and I decided not to mess with success.

Having said that, are you sure that the gifted program doesn't have the extracurricular activities you son likes? That seems strange to me. How long do the gifted program go? Till the end of high school or just for middle school?

Until MS. Nope. No electives and no electives at this time.

We chose the public gifted magnet over private. Our son is flourishing. He is making friends. The kids and teachers truly get him. He is PG. I dont think the private would have been as accommodating his 2e.

If he was younger I switch. But it seems his present school would be more beneficial than the gifted school

If it was me, my intuition would tell me to stick with the private school.