That's awful for your DD to have something good taken away from her like that for a year. I do think that the Pre-Algebra program overall is a good place to be - it's easy and low-stress without being years beneath his ability level. The teacher recently volunteered the comment that he believes DS would be able to complete Algebra I just fine if he were to do it this year but that there may be an advantage to doing it next year because DS may be able to internalized more of the abstract concepts as a foundation for higher math. It appears that he will likely add some other stuff to the curriculum.