Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments D

When we made our move to a new school, here is what I did:

I called the school and asked who my son's counselor would be and who was the special ed chair for the school. I then contacted both of those people individually via email and let them know my son would be attending their school and asked to meet with each of them separately. Both agreed to meet me.

I went to the counselor's meeting with the intent of "giving her a head's up". I briefly explained my son's challenges, what the teachers at his previous school had done and asked if she needed anything from me to help make her job easier. Because of this meeting, she has been accessible to me each time I've needed to contact her and has worked as an advocate for my son. She also gave me insight into my son's planned teachers and which ones she thought would like info ahead of time and which would be more likely to want the info after he was already in their class and they had a sense of his capabilities.

I went to the special ed chair's meeting with the intent of "touching base" to make sure she knew I was an active participant, willing to work with the teachers and hear any feedback they had, and to find out what accommodations would be easily accepted and which might meet resistance. She has also been an excellent advocate for my son and a great go-between for the teacher who has reacted negatively to my son being in her class.

Once my son was in the school, I actually had the opportunity to email each of them the week after school started - not as a touching base but a "my kid broke his leg, is bed-ridden and won't be back to school for at least a week" message. Within this message, I asked each of them if they'd received my son's special ed folder yet. None of them even knew he was in special ed yet. So they each replied asking questions. It has helped open up the line of communication, although it was a lousy way to start the year.

Good luck. I can imagine the level of anxiety you're facing. Here's hoping that one public school has a few teachers that make it a great place for you all to be!

I wouldn't say anything but would schedule a conference for the second month of school and let the teacher know that you just want to see how your child is doing and if there is anything you can do as parents to help them along.
Give the teacher some time to get to know your child and see if they get it or not before you say anything.

In regards to the first question in your post about researching and picking a school, I think that the more you can find out about how flexible the administration is, the better sense you'll have of how willing they'll be to work with your child to meet his needs. Ask how they handle children of differing abilities in a classroom. Ask specifically how they accommodate gifted children. Ask if they ever accelerate by subject if it's needed. We picked our school because the administration touted their flexibility on our initial tour (breakout groups by ability across the entire grade for both reading and math, and subject acceleration when needed).

Regarding the start-of-year conversation with the K teacher, I think different schools, and teachers, have different philosophies regarding parent input. I don't think the advice to sit back and let the teacher discover your child's gifts works in all cases; I think it depends on the school, the teacher, and the child.

For us, we have a DS who won't show what he's capable of early on, and we have a school that values parent input. So we've talked with our teachers about a month into the year in both K and 1st grade, and it's led to great outcomes. The parents of the another gifted child in DS's grade took the sit back and wait approach, and the teacher never did anything until they finally spoke up and asked for subject acceleration in March of his K year. Even if you have a clueless teacher, a flexible school creates an atmosphere where parent input is more valued, and it can be easier meet individual students' needs.