there is not one penny of extra funding for anything.
Sounds like it's not worth getting into a battle over who pays for this. If they never spend extra money, they'll fight you tooth and nail, and it seems that your emotional capital should be spent on getting everyone on the same page about how to help your dd.
My YS10 is also in 5th grade. And like your dd, my son was frustrated that he wasn't learning anything in school-- so much so that he considered it a complete waste of his time. Fortunately, the school team agreed with him after seeing his Explore results. But he declined a skip last year, so we've worked really hard with the school to figure out differentiation for him.
That means that
I have found an online math program that would work in school this year. I gave the teacher two options and he researched them, and chose the one most highly endorsed by a math group (can't remember the name of it). DS will do the online lesson once a week in school, and do the homework in class while the rest of the group is getting their math lessons. I had to find the class and ended up paying for it, but it's worth it because the school is fully supportive and my son is excited about it.
The other thing they're doing, which doesn't cost money, and which might work for your dd, is the school is finding him a mentor in a different subject in which he excels. He'll choose a year-long project and work toward that with the mentor. The mentor will work with him weekly or bi-weekly and again, he'll get to do some of the research/work in class. Perhaps you can start reaching out and trying to find a writing mentor for your dd, or find some online classes. Or maybe there's a yearlong writing goal she can be working toward.
Davidson has a great list of online resources for gifted kids somewhere on the site-- that's where I found the online math my son is doing and I think there are LA programs as well.
One other thing you might consider doing is printing some of the articles from Davidson and highlighting some of the ideas for differentiation that make sense to you, and passing them on to your principal. I was lucky enough that our principal has her masters in gifted education, so I didn't have to do any convincing after I showed her his IQ and Explore scores. But I did try very hard to take a "team" approach so that everyone was in line with helping my son.
That said, I know there are principals who are obstructionists. The middle school principal proudly told me she didn't believe in skips (even though this was a gifted middle school), and she was proud of her ignorance in gifted needs. I wouldn't have been able to convince her, so that was another reason my son didn't end up skipping. I'm glad we didn't have to fight that battle yet. And I hope you don't face that.
HTH, Good luck!
