Thanks, everyone!! I was able to quickly scan your responses before the meeting, so they were indeed helpful. Here's the situation: the kid has some baseline depression, probably genetic, in addition to the depression from school. He's seeing a wonderful shrink and takes antidepressants, which help a lot. The 504 is to address his ADD issues and also occasional emotional outbursts. I have no doubt that he has ADD in addition to just being bored. At the meeting they had a lot of great suggestions for the ADD. I read aloud from his neuropsych test report the neuropsych's recommendations for doing one on one mentorship projects and having a chance to share his various interests with the class. I recall that was all she thought the public schools would accommodate. I left it at that, and the school was happy to implement those suggestions. They do IXL at school, which allows him to skip to different grade levels of math, at least, though it doesn't include any instruction, which he definitely needs.
I was all excited about our meeting, until ds came home and complained again about how boring school was. Now that he's visited other schools, especially the gifted one, he knows what school could actually be like and he wants that. My husband and I are going to visit three different schools this week, including a Montessori, a small, relatively traditional school that claims to offer differentiation, and the Sage School, which is another gifted school. It's tough, because though he's very bright I don't think he could handle a heavy workload, even if it's interesting.
He has spent a good portion of the last month at home, partly because he was transitioning between antidepressants at the same time his teacher was sick and there was a different sub every day for 2 weeks. It was a good respite for him, but I frankly need more time for my own career and I get way too impatient with him to consider homeschooling seriously. Maybe if he weren't depressed underneath it all, I could handle it.
Anyway, thanks so much. You guys are way more patient at home than I am.
