Thank you so much for your responses. We live in NJ (and he goes to a public school) and their definition of gifted is VERY broad and now a school wide enrichment program can actually qualify as a G&T program (nice huh?). My son is a great kid at school and the teachers have always loved having him in class. He was identified as gifted in 2nd grade through the WISC IV test and well exceeded the criteria for the G&T program. And at the time he was the only one in the program for his grade (his 1st grad teacher definitely thought he should be tested but was afraid he would miss out on the social aspects as a 1st grader
- what did I know then! So in 2nd grad he had a great teacher who did some differentiation and he also had the G&T teacher to himself (another child started a little later in the year) once a week. But once third grad hit all he got was some accelerated math homework (which his teacher did on her own but was very time consuming for her). And half the time the G&T pullout was cancelled. But still a wasted year with always hearing "I don't want to go to school". And just to make a long story short - last year they asked for parents to be on a G&T parent advisory committee. We worked over a year trying to design a program which would benefit the identified kids through acceleration, other kids with differentiation and the children as a whole with differentiated educational enrichment programs - while researching everything we could about what works best for gifted kids. Well we were used to roll out their new "Academically Talented Enrichment Program" and we were fighting to keep whatever little we had left for the identified kids. So we are left with a book club and a debated team and a math folder that I had to beg for that the kids can work on on their own when they are done with their class work. I have fought all the way up to the administration - who we worked with on the committee and I know maybe too well and have learned that in some towns the pricipals really don't have a say (and ours wouldn't help anyways). So unfortunately, any other kind of testing or scores does not make a bit of difference to them. There are no gifted schools and had looked into private schools but again there wasn't much more offered in the way of acceleration. As for homeschooling, my son would be even more miserable. Socially, he has a lot of friends and enjoys his time with them - trust me, I would be on his(well I have a not so nice word but I'm not sure all would appreciate it). I did tell him that he had to start trying more on his regular work before I would ask for more advanced work for him. So we made a deal and we'll see how it goes. However, with the lack of support from the school, it is the same for friends of mine with kids on the other end as well - if you are not identified as Special Ed then you are pretty much on your own. I'm not sure how to deal with this and many of us are so frusturated on all ends. If anyone has any other suggestions on how to deal with the district (as I've already gone as high as I can with the administration and the cringe when they see my face and another G&T child's moms face) I would love to hear what has worked for you. Is there someone higher to go to? Thanks so much to listening to my rambling on. And it's scaring me that I'm starting to see the things happen to my son that you read about now that he is getting older. It definitely seems to be more serious and I feel this could be a changing point for him as to which direction he will go
. Thanks for the support.
Jules
