Thanks again everyone! I am feeling more clear on priorities and on the source of some of my confusion. Still a long road ahead!
polar bear - thank you for the advice to document verbal conversations. Such a great idea to help ensure clarity.
I agree with pursuing outside testing. I had wanted to start there, but life took an unexpected turn and going through the schools seemed like an easier road. I will definitely revisit after the first of the year.
blackcat - thanks for all the perspectives on testing. From looking at the district's policy, I determined that they are doing RTI. I understand that they aren't supposed to be, so am going to contact the school administration about taking corrective action. I'm sure I'll have to go "up the ladder" to get any remedy (and maybe even end up with a complaint), but the policy flaw--and the language in the prior written notice they gave me--are very clearly not correct.
Right now, my son wants to do the gifted "portfolio project"--so I'm leaning in letting him go ahead. The program is so new that I think he'll get as much enrichment--if not more--by going that route. Still weighing options and waiting until after Winter Break to decide.
spaghetti - thanks for the sensitivity about my son and his grieving process. I agree the timing is not ideal. The only reason I am anxious about moving ahead with testing is that he's in his last year of elementary. The teachers have been very understanding with him--both with the loss and more recently with his handwriting. They have made some adjustments for him (e.g., letting him bring some work home to type instead of writing). I cannot imagine having to attempt to negotiate with more than 2x the number of teachers in middle school!
And thanks for the recommendation to investigate the complaint process. I did call the appropriate state office
today, but found a parents' advocacy organization to be much more informative and helpful.
The district policy is broken. They allow the use of RTI to delay and eval--and shouldn't. I will see if the district provides any corrections but won't hesitate to take it to the state if they don't.
Your son sounds amazing! His story gives me hope and motivation to continue advocating for what I know is best for my son.
EmmaL - thank you for sharing your perspective. I found out that they are using interventions instead of taking action to affirm/deny an eval--which is not the right policy approach. Somehow, I don't have a copy the consent form.
My younger DD has been referred for speech therapy and will end up with her very own (speech-only) IEP soon. She's had known articulation issues for over a year, but is just now getting an eval.
Part of that is due to some outside medical/orthodontic evals we were pursuing, but part of that is the district's policy that allows children to fall into a "RTI" and "monitoring" state instead of acting.
I am a bit mind-blown about all I have learned in the past week. I am actually feeling grateful about the denial of gifted services at this point because it led me on the path to understanding the special education evaluation process much more clearly. And that is priority #1 at this point.
