Wow! I love this site so much. I hope you know how much I appreciate your input and advice. I have no idea if our school will plan to do its own placement testing. In fact, I have no idea if they'll even consider acceleration at all. If not, I will look at other options including homeschooling. I have a feeling they'll want to keep him where he is and provide opportunities for more challenging work. That's nice, but with 26 other children in the room, I don't see it happening on a regular basis. They do not seem at all educated on giftedness, and there is no gifted program. They are a private Catholic school, and they boast of having a very rigorous differentiated curriculum based on ability level. That sounds good on paper, but in reality there's not much differentiation going on. Last year when we voiced our concerns about ds's boredom, we came up with a plan and lots of promises were made. They were not fulfilled.
So, I could do the placement testing myself, but I'm wondering if I should have the meeting first. I know ds needs to accelerate to first grade; I'm just not sure if that school is the place for him. We'll never know unless we give it a try. I don't want to make it sound like it's a horrible school; they're just not equipped to handle differences.
I just have to stick to my guns, educate the teachers as much as possible, and be prepared to find another alternative if this doesn't work. Thanks again. I am really grateful for all of your advice.
