Thank you all so much for your comments!
Those are some great questions Kaibab...the program seems to have a good reputation with parents speaking very positively about it. The program is for grades K-12 with it being a self contained class in elementary school and then in middle and high school the students take gifted courses along with AP classes or can attend one of five academies: Math, Engineering, Technology and Science, International Business, Biomedical Professions, Media Arts Technology or Law I believe. I think they accept anyone with the required score but am not sure if admission can be revoked, that is something I need to ask. I plan to go visit the elementary school and will ask that while there.
The town is actually where my husband works and is fairly close to where we live now. I work from home so that will not be an issue. DS is also an only child so do not have siblings to consider and financially we would be okay. If we sell our house. And with the market the way it is that may not be an easy feat. Plus we enjoy our neighborhood and have good friends here so I am not necessarily eager to move. And as you all have pointed out what if we move and it does not work out? That really concerns me. However, I really want to do what is best for him so will definitly give it some serious consideration. And I have not yet tried to work out a solution with the school he is currently attending. So there could be options there I do not know about. But talking to other parents it seems very limited. I do not believe they will entertain a grade skip and all signs seem to indicate that they feel the GT program they have is enough. But to be fair I have not yet tried so I do plan to talk to the principle next week and discuss options. Maybe I will be pleasantly suprised!
This is all so new and so I am really just trying to figure it all out. I was not a GT child and so do not have the personal background to help guide me.
ElizabethN she did not offer alot of options when she sent me the report. She encouraged us to put him in outside art and music classes and that he might enjoy learning a second language. But as far as his education she just said that he needs to be challenged and recommended that district. When we spoke after the testing she said that a gifted pullout program of only a couple of hours a week is probably not going to be of much benefit to him and that it would be hard to keep him challenged unless some extensive differentiation or subject acceleration happened. She did leave it open for me to contact her so maybe I should call her and ask for additional advice on other ways I could meet his needs. I wish she would have given me a more detailed report with some more concrete recommendations. I think I will reach out to her on this.
Thank you Grinity for the comment about him likely being in the majority. I had not thought of the bell curve that way so that really helps!
Thank you again for all your advice!
