Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy School meeting worries

Prissy I may need to PM you for some info....well the meeting was a complete and utter joke. We worked it out for DH to come with me and then at the last second before we needed to go, he got called into an emergency meeting - so no DH :-(

We got his IEP review done - still in Speech/OT/Gifted (even though he has never been allowed access to it since we homeschool) for next year...then the discussion began about acceleration/ or options for next year.

The guidance counselor and the gifted teacher from the new zoned school came to the meeting and I could kiss my son's speech teacher because she really tried hard to advocate for DS7....so did the gifted teacher who has never even met him.

I was told by the guidance counselor (and that she was also speaking for the principal) that by no way/shape/form would they agree to an acceleration at this point even with all of our testing/data/full psychologist report/work samples...because they said that they would be just "taking our word for it" - I told her and showed her the sunshine state standards and how all of the 2nd grade standards had been already completed and that I would be very happy to share work/projects showing this mastery and she said that she didn't know me and that I could be just "stretching things" and they wanted to see him sit in the classroom for the first 9 weeks and be able to willingly and without argument complete "normal" 2nd grade work with no issues before they would even consider differentiating work for him. So I asked them how fair is it that this child who is clearly doing way above 2nd grade work be forced to sit in a classroom for 9 weeks doing work that he has already mastered and then shared our nightmare experience this past year where they made us do the exact same thing - they refused any kind of harder work/anything -they made him sit and circle what picture began with the letter T, count the dots and circle the correct number and he turned into a nightmare behavior problem because after a week of that he started to refuse to do the work. The exact same thing is going to happen all over again. I shared that what we wanted was for our son to have access to an appropriate education at his level in a classroom and not be made to sit in a corner by himself doing "harder" worksheets.

I felt like bashing my head on the wall. I asked if there was an assessment they would want us to do to show that he has mastered the material in 2nd grade since they stated they didn't want to take "our word for it" OR the woodcock Johnson achievement test results or the full psychologist report (and she is a school psychologist in a neighboring county)- which is stupid in my opinion....they said no. Then the guidance person told us that we should probably prepare ourselves for multiple meetings and that this was going to be "very rough for everyone since it appears that behavior is going to come into play" and that we will probably need to call in the child study team to help plan out a behavior program for him.....I was SOOOO angry I could bust. Here is this kid who has had ZERO problems all this year with behavior and he has been in many, many homeschool co-op classes, gifted saturday programs, scout meetings...you name it - no behavior issues....but you know when you DON'T give appropriate level work to a young child, they are going to get bored and he is as stubborn as a mule. The counselor told us we needed to teach him to "play the game" and put up with boredom for 9 weeks before they are willing to offer anything to him. WHAT????? How is that giving a child an appropriate education??? How do you explain to a 7 year old that he needs to deal with being bored and to "deal with it"?????

I got upset and told her that I really didn't appreciate that they are automatically beginning to label him a behavior problem when the school we tried this year refused to even see if there was any change in behavior by giving him work on his level...I told her that I could understand if they had taken the opportunity to allow him to work at a harder level and then if he had continued to be a behavior problem that we may have needed to work on a behavior plan...I even shared that the ONLY time he was a happy go lucky kid was when that teacher was out sick for several days and they had in a substitute..the substitute was just gushing over DS telling us how amazing he was and how she had a blast coming up with new things for him to work on and that she had no idea why the school teacher left a warning note about my child and to be prepared for massive behavior issues...she had not a single issue with him the several days she was there because geee....she took the time to plan and allow him to work at a higher level.....but they refused to even attempt any other scenario....when you stick a kid into a no win situation what do they expect????

She kept throwing the fact in my face over and over that the county MUST adhere to the strict student progression plan and there were no exceptions. The gifted teacher kept trying to stick up for me/DS by agreeing 1 million percent with everything that I was sharing and she kept trying to say that this was not going to be a good plan and that we needed to have something in full swing when school began but the guidance person ignored her.

Guidance then went on to share that parents were going to be in for a rude awakening next year in Brevard County because they were going to be working in a bare bones situation - there would be no allowance for switching teachers/classrooms if issues arose, there would be no special programs, there would be no help for many kids that needed it...she said they were expecting parents to be beating the doors down. She said she didn't want to sugar coat things and that my son would need to "suck it up" and "deal with it" and that we needed to get over the fact that "he is not going to get an individualized education and that he was going to have to figure out how to deal with it".

I was just fuming when I left. I am so tired of trying to fight for an education for my child when every other tom, dick and harry are able to walk into a public school with no issues and have their "normal" children have no issues with getting an education. Why does it have to be so hard for gifted parents/families??? Don't they have a right to an education as well? How can they expect a 7 year old boy to sit perfectly still for 5-6 hours a day, day in and day out fo 9 weeks doing activities/lessons he has already mastered and for him to be happy about it?? Arggghhh!