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Thanks aeh and Quantum.

DS has spent the last year not learning any new math and has missed a total of 7 problems all year, including on homework and tests, with almost no effort. Knowing that he had been taught some "seventh grade math" during his fourth grade year at a different school, his teacher gave him the actual final exam that the prealgebra kids are given, and it was actually all algebra concepts (factoring polynomials, solving for x, simplifying expressions, negative exponents, etc.). He has had no real prealgebra instruction.

DS was very excited about the possibility of taking algebra next year. He wanted it so badly that he was really worried that they wouldn't let him. He was a little concerned that he would have to be in a class mostly with people he didn't know, but he had decided it would be worth it to finally get to learn some new stuff. He really does love math.

Now, DS is no longer sure which path he wants to take since Algebra in school is off the table. Coast but stay with friends and in school or homeschool, which would be a new concept for him.

DH and I are now ambivalent about which path he should take. We have full confidence that he would do well in algebra because he learns so quickly and math really is his strong suit. He just seems to "get" math. If we did give him some exposure to it, we feel like he would pick it up easily. We are in no hurry to move him through the curriculum (and finishing the school's curriculum two years early would bring its own challenges), but on the other hand he has never had to learn new concepts in math class or actually work to learn something new.

Because of the schedule issues we were told of today, teaching him over the summer so that he could take algebra in school in the fall is now a non-starter. The decision is really between homeschooling math for a year or two, with this year being what he doesn't know in prealgebra and then algebra, or just continuing to let him coast at school knowing that he won't learn much new for the first half of the year.