So much excellent advice.
In a way, I think that the 'lets get a Psychiatrist' involved and have all our information upfront, is a way, I think, of evaluating how much confidence you have that a better fit classroom will solve your son's problems. I like your 'When in Rome' way of stating it. Having social pressure is a good thing, if there are no other issues that outweight that in the mix.
I think that the school - perhaps unconsiously - is looking for you to say: "I understand that this is an unusual situtation and you want all the reassurance you can get that this is the right move at the right time, but let ME ASSURE you, that this situation is unusual enough that ONLY TIME WILL TELL. My son does show some unusual behaviors, but I am CONFIDENT that once the academics are of a proper fit, that we can parent him through the social difficulties. We are the parents.
We are confident that the only additional tests he needs at this time are academic tests so that he can be placed in an appropriate mix of classes.We appreciate your flexibility so far, and want to assure you that if, in the future, we need to be flexible on the question of psychiatric evaluation, we will be. Finding the right blend is a process, like Rome, that won't be built in a day. All the preperation in the world won't mean as much as a 6 week trial.
Does that seem to fit? In the old days a child was skipped, transcripped altered forever, and that was the end of the process. Nowadays there should be follow up evals to see if it's working out, if it's too much or if it's not enough.
It's my feeling that they are (unconsiouly) looking for reassurance, and that simply reminding them that you are all working together for your son's benifit and showing personal confidence is all that they actually need right now.
To their credit, schoolies feel very responsible that if they skip a child they are changing the child's life forever. That didn't happen in our house, but I can applaud the seriousness with which they are approaching their role.
In the end, I'd fold faster than a cheap suitcase, but I would at least make a solid bid for a stepwise evaluation. There is no point in a mental health evaluation until the academic eval tells you if he's have to leave the building or if academic peers can be found inside the building somewhere, because you won't be able to add in the actual details of the plan. Oh, and be sure that they aren't planning to 'stop the test' for any sort of weak excuse like: 'we don't have high enough materials' or 'we've never tested beyond level " - " ' or 'we aren't going to send him out of the building so what's the point of actually seeing where he actually is?'
Even though they sound like they would logically 'of course' keep testing until they got his proper level, it's quite hard to keep them 'on course' - experience trumps logic about once every 15 mintues around here, and to be honest, I don't know if I'd be able to get out of bed on these crazy weather days if I was actually being logical and rational.
Smiles,
Grinity
