Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Public School with IEP or Private School?

Just found this forum and am hoping your experience can help us with a few things. DD just completed an astonishingly awful year of kindergarten at a regional magnet school which we selected in part due to the multi-age classroom setting. She had always been �way ahead of the curve� on most things but also was in private OT for a fine motor deficit. We assumed she would receive kindergarten level instruction where needed and more advanced instruction where needed. She ended up receiving little to no instruction at all. During her first week of kindergarten she actually lost playground privileges when she was unable to write a specific sentence despite the teacher being aware of her fine motor deficit. It only went downhill from there. By the end of the year our happy, outgoing, confident 6 year old was clinically anxious.

The last weeks of the school year we were finally able to arrange for special ed testing to see if she could qualify for in-school OT. At the meeting we also pointed out our concerns about her reading � usually reading at or above grade level at home but barely willing to acknowledge that she knew her letters while at school. We thought this was the result of the anxiety she had developed in this school and made arrangements to enroll her in a wonderful (albeit very expensive) private school next year. The low key, no pressure environment that was focused on one-to-one teaching and no testing seemed perfect. We proceeded with the special ed eval primarily because we were told it would be a huge expense to do on our own later if for any reason it seemed to be needed.

Got the results last week and they showed a 40 point difference between her Verbal Comprehension Index and Perceptual Reasoning Index, which we are told places her in less than one half of one percent of the population. Various verbal comprehension scores in the 96th-98th percentile while Perceptual Reasoning, Processing Speed and Alphabet/Word Knowledge were all 5th percentile.

The special ed coordinator for the town has only seen 1 other kid with these types of scores in her 30+ year career; the school psych that did the testing had never seen anything like it. They are telling us the she NEEDS to be in a public school so that an integrated combination of special ed services can be provided. They also acknowledge that the town does not have a mechanism to offer enrichment prior to 4th grade so we are not sure if her comprehension strengths will be supported. They are taking a personal interest in her because they view her as a unique situation but they are also flying blind. The private school would have us contract with an Orton Gillingham specialist who would come to the school 4 days per week, at an additional cost of almost 50% of the already steep tuition. We would also continue to do OT privately, as well as potentially counseling for the anxiety.

Does she really need to be in a public school, at least until we figure out exactly what the special ed needs are? She would go to our local school � definitely won�t subject her to the magnet again. Can a private school meet her needs (12 kids to a classroom with 2 masters level teachers per room) without having someone in house coordinating the special ed component? Can the public school actually meet her needs if they have not seen this situation in the past 25 years or so? We are confident that her anxiety and comprehension are better suited to the private. The special ed and our wallet, though, make us wonder if public really is the better option. Any ideas? All input is welcome.

Thanks in advance.

My advice is to try the private. My D (age 16) has some unusual score splits as well (including very high verbal, but slow processing speed). Our private school has provided some very good services without requiring extra expense on top of tuition -- I would suggest you put her in the private with the two teachers first and see how that goes without the additional outside services.

I have to disagree- our feeling has been that it is better to go to the public school if your child has a disability/something that can be addressed by an IEP. Private schools DO NOT have to offer the same services to you. It's just that simple. You can try to get the IEP set up there, but they don't have to do it.
Private schools also may have less experience, despite what they say, at taking care of children with disabilities. The public schools HAVE to deal with that- per the ADA laws.
My son is very bright and hearing impaired. We went through 2 private schools and finally came to our (excellent) public school, which has been fantastic for the hearing loss.
HTH.

I wouldn't make any decisions based on test scores until you think about if those scores reflect the ability or just anxiety. Paying for a private eval might save a bundle in tuition money. Or assure you that one choice is better.

So much depends on the individual teacher.

Best wishes
Grinity

Another option to consider -- special ed services through public school while attending private. I had a friend who did this with her son who is now in high school. In elementary, he had always been perceived as a poor student due to reading difficulties. At some point, they gave him a standardized test and he had one of the top three math scores in the state. The teacher accused him of cheating. At that point the mom had outside testing done and showed that he was 2e. Mom couldn't face sending him back to the public school but the private school had no expertise working with dyslexia.

I believe he went to the public school for a few hours a couple days per week for specialized reading instruction and went back to the private school for the rest of the day. Public school initially balked at the idea and I believe that she had to file a due process claim under the IDEA. You may not be ready to go there but it might give you some of the benefits of both worlds.

This is a tough one, Pemberley. I think you should gather more information from private (non-school) professionals as soon as possible. If she were mine, I'd want a full neuropsych workup to identify all disabilities so you know exactly what you're dealing with. A school eval doesn't cover everything, and you want really solid information.

Private school is suggesting Orton-Gillingham-- so they think she's dyslexic? Or just offering a resource? I suspect you don't need to hire the specialist until you know for sure that that issue is there to treat; as far as I know O-G only treats dyslexia.

Our approach with our 2E (Asperger's) DS9 has been to stay in public school, partly because there's no private school here that will meet the need. We did spend the better part of three years in active negotiation to get the public school to understand and work well with DS; they are now on board and trying hard, and largely succeeding. Big wins from staying in public school included having a special ed teacher whose job it was to coordinate everything and make sure he was successful across all subjects, including wrangling the specials teachers, and our having the legal authority to go back to them when it wasn't working and ask them to do it a new way. The in-school therapies were a plus, though they always come with tradeoffs (being pulled out of subjects to go do therapy).

My understanding of private schools, gleaned from others' experiences, is that sometimes they think they can handle a kid with disabilities, and then it turns out to be hard, the teacher gets discouraged and/or punitive because the problems are out of his/her league, and then the situation goes sour. And you have no guaranteed legal right to be there, so they can give up anytime. But sometimes they are wonderful. You should go watch in the classrooms-- not that you will see anybody just like your child, but if you watch for a while you will see how the outliers (slower/faster/different) are being handled.

You probably need to decide something very soon, if you're somewhere in the US where school starts imminently. Do you know what the teacher placement would be at the public school? Does the principal in the current public school know about the problems you had with last year's teacher? Have you talked to other special needs parents (maybe there's a support group in the district)? IMO the right teacher can go a long way toward making a placement workable (or not).

If you had a sense that the public school was going to be okay, I might stick there until you have more information, just because changing schools might feel hard for a first grader and changing twice (back and forth) could be tough on her, confusing, etc. (You can probably always move to the private if you need to later?)

And yet, know this: your DD will change as she grows, so don't feel you have to get it right forever. Find the fit that meets the current needs best, and plan to change it if you need to.

HTH,
DeeDee

You may not have to choose based on the cost of private special ed services. Under IDEA 2004, LEAs (Local Education Agencies) are responsible for providing "equitable services" to private school students within their boundaries. It is possible that some services for your child could be included in this if she enrolls in the private school

http://www.wrightslaw.com/idea/osep/faqs.parent.placemts.pdf

To be clear, there is no IEP requirement, and no individually mandated services to private school students like there are for public students, but the district does have to provide some services to private school students with disabilities, and it is worth checking out to see if your child's needs could be included there, if you feel that the academic environment at the private would be a better fit.

If the anxiety is severe enough that you and your child's therapist feel that a regular PS classroom would be inappropriate, you can always disagree with the school's proposed IEP and ask for tuition and special ed and related services reimbursement for the private school and the Orton-Gillingham tutor, if that is what is clearly needed. They will almost certainly say no, but you can either enroll her in the private school anyway and press ahead with the appeals process at that point, (considering the fact that they completely failed to provide an appropriate education in the year that she was enrolled, and their teachers' behavior toward a child with a previously documented physical disability is largely responsible for her current anxiety) or use the threat of doing so as leverage to get the tutor provided at public expense or to get a better IEP at the public school.

BTW, the local public district is responsible for evaluating private school children suspected of having disabilities under the child find provisions of IDEA, so if they told you that they were not, that is a red flag regarding how well they may be meeting their other obligations under that law.

It is also worth noting that, when the time comes to develop the IEP if you choose to go with the public option, you might want to push for accelerated work in her areas of strength in order to help reduce her anxiety, with supporting documentation from her therapist. If the advanced work is required to help ameliorate one of her disabilities, then failure to provide it is failure to provide a FAPE.

I really recommend familiarizing yourself with the material over at wrightslaw.com before you get too much further into this process.

Aculady makes a lot of good points. If you go the routes she suggests, though, I'd suggest hiring a professional special ed advocate. (Sometimes you can get one free from your state, but not quickly.)

I spent my DS's kindergarten year reading law to protect his rights, and it would have been much more effective for me to immediately hire out that piece of the job so I could focus on other things more closely. We ended up with a terrific advocate who was experienced in our district who negotiated a lot of help for DS, much better than I ever could have done alone.

DeeDee

Thank you so much for all the replies. A little more detail may help clarify:

The regional magnet she attended was located in the neighboring large city where the private is also located. Our town indeed has a school psych assigned to work with kids attending private schools and magnet schools. The magnet was required to contact her and never did. In fact they repeatedly stopped us from doing so with their insistence "she would never qualify". It was June before we were given the information to contact her ourselves. Trust me - I have been kicking myself over and over for not having found a way to have made this happen earlier.

Yes, the town will provide up to 45 minutes per week of special ed services for a student enrolled in a private school within the town's borders. Since this private school is located across the border, though, the large city would be responsible for determining need and providing service. Based on our experience last year we have absolutely no faith in the efforts they would make. Even if they provided service I do not feel confident that it would be of sufficient quality to address her issues.

Yes, they are saying she is dyslexic. Oddly the director of special ed said she never believed dyslexia existed before meeting DD. I never knew there was a question about that... Anyway the director of special services indicated that this does not appear to be a typical form of dyslexia and indicated it is somewhere between "very rare" and "unique". They rejected the idea that her scores were deflated because of the anxiety when I raised it with them. As I said they are taking a special interest but are flying blind.

The private school is an amazing place - totally child centered, totally no pressure, totally individualized. In my gut I KNOW she needs to be there it is just a question of whether I can do it now or if we need to get a handle of just what additional resources she will need to have provided. They had their K-1 and 2-3 teachers review her test results and they feel strongly that they can offer the best learning environment for her, as long as she has the additional help with the dyslexia. The woman from the dyslexia program had her organization review the test results and they are also confident that they can meet her needs. I just don't know what additional services may end up being needed and I can see the cost rising and rising to even more unreasonable levels.

The public school special ed teacher apparently is completing Orton Gillingham training this summer and I have heard 100% positive reviews about her. She is supposed to be fabulous. We are including in the IEP a request for enrichment opportunities but I have been told it will be up to the classroom teacher to include them. We plan to meet with the principal early this week to discuss placement with the correct classroom teacher.

I will call the pediatrician in the am - planning to ask for a complete ophthalmological exam as well as a neurological or neuropsych exam. DD suffered a concussion in February but a relative who is a pediatrician felt strongly that was not a factor when I showed him the test results. I think Dee Dee makes a good point, though, and I will strongly request one. We will obviously discuss the anxiety too but it is amazing how quickly it dissipated once she was out of school. I am sure it will be retriggered once she steps foot in a school again. Any other suggestions for requests or questions to the pediatrician?

We have been playing telephone tag with the director of the largest 2E program in the country. Even though we are not in their school district I guess DD's situation is unusual enough that people have been extremely kind in trying to help us. Any suggestions for questions to pose this person once we are able to schedule our phone conversation?

I am also interested in any questions or key phrases to use when speaking to the principal in the next few days. I feel so burned by the magnet I am more than a bit uneasy about expecting the public to meet her needs. As I said earlier they are definitely taking a personal interest but really have no experience. (i.e. they had no idea what the term "twice exceptional" was when I used it during our IEP meeting the other day.)

It is interesting that the mix of responses here is so closely echoing my own thought process as I go back and forth between the 2. Thank you so much for your thoughts. I am so, so glad to have found this forum. Please keep your ideas coming - I will be needing them as we make our final decision very soon.

I can see why they're out of the question.


Please don't kick yourself. These things (both concerning the kid and the legal stuff around the kid) are hard to figure out.


And they might not if you don't live in that district. At least, that's how it is here.


It will be your job to find outside experts to educate them. That would be strenuous but not impossible.


Can you afford the private plus the Orton Gillingham for 1-3 years? So far as I know dyslexia is best remediated early. Even if she can't stay there for her whole career, private may be worth a good look. Would your insurance cover outside OT?


Look at your state's laws about serving gifted students. Some states guarantee nothing, some mandate a gifted ed plan.

We found that the 2E status did allow us to get better content, nearly by accident, because DS's plan was individualized anyway.


Get her ears checked too. Thoroughly.


That wouldn't bother me much. They don't hang around on these boards where terms like these are used. My questions would be more-- do they think that gifted children may need different material from early on? -- do they have teachers who are capable of differentiating instruction? -- what is their attitude toward differentiation, at the principal level, for both disabled and gifted?

Best,
DeeDee