Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments How to start off right with new school?

Tomorrow I will officially own a different house and be able to officially enroll DD in next year's school. About a month ago, when I was first looking at this house, I spoke with the school principal and the district coordinator for their TAG program, who both said ALL THE RIGHT THINGS. I was supposed to tour the school with the principal about 3 weeks ago, but she was sick that day and I didn't call back right away to reschedule, and with only 3 weeks of school left, it now seems that I will unfortunately be getting a group tour (not yet scheduled).

I want to get off to a really good start with this school. I want to get in a lot of input on her teacher for next year. She's 2E, and it is super important to find the "best fit" teacher for both her disabilies and giftedness.

How would you approach them? Would it be reasonable to ask for a meeting with the principal directly about her placement next year? I mean, I don't want to go all my-child-is-the-specialest-petunia-ever on them, but the fact is, she is in no way average and it won't benefit anyone in the long run to pretend she is.

The last day of school is June 17, fwiw. I don't know when they make up class lists, but I do know that the current sped teacher emailed me yesterday to ask if DD would be at our current school next year, because apparently the current school is working on that now.

Sorry--no good advice but wanted to say warm thoughts and good wishes for you. I can imagine this is pretty stressful for you. Hope it goes well! If you have a current IEP they should have to accept that (at least initially).

Yes, she does have a current IEP. One thing I worry a bit about is that the current IEP team actively believes that 2E children do not need gifted services and that it could somehow be bad to provide them. They have also taken the attitude that their job is to keep her from being challenged rather than showing her how to handle challenge.

However, spending a lot of time complaining about the old school still not necessarily win points with the new school, so there's that to worry about, too.

To start off right with a 2e child at a new school, you may wish to read the book From Emotions to Advocacy, the Wrightslaw website, and look at selected portions of the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) website. Possibly you have already done these things.

You may wish to inquire at the school about the school's process for teacher selection. They may have a process in place for receiving parental input.

You may wish to keep dated documentation at home. In the event that an issue may arise it is helpful to have facts to draw from. Your private documentation may help inform you as to whether something is an isolated occurrence or may form a pattern.

I'd suggest calling the school and rescheduling the meeting ASAP. Go in with the IEP in it's broadest terms and then bring the conversation around to the Giftedness too.

The big thing is to try everything to get a meeting with both the principal and the TAG co-ordinator and not only the group tour - I'd hope that this would set the tone to enable you to carry on from where things stood at last communication.

best of luck with the move and sorting this out!

I would second checking out the Wrightslaw website and their excellent book, From Emotions To Advocacy (FETA). I had the opportunity to attend one of their two day classes for parents and found it well done and useful (even though I had already read the book). It's an easy read with largish print and smallish words but don't let that fool you. Probably some of the best $$ I have ever spent.

Since she has an active IEP in her current school district, the way I'd approach talking to the new school *now* is to start the process of transferring the IEP - there is going to be a policy for how new-to-district students with IEPs are handled, and you should be able to most likely look online and see who you contact. An initial IEP meeting will put you in touch with personnel at your dd's new school who will likely be more invested in her future there than the principal will be (I don't intend any disrespect when I say that, it's just been my experience that school principals in general are more involved in the larger issues of running their schools than the details of which child goes into which class or has which specific enrichment etc - I know some parents in some school districts have had different experiences, so take my advice with a grain of salt

I'd also, honestly, be focusing on getting her IEP support needs in place - because no matter what differentiation or gifted services she will eventually receive, she also has other needs, and again, my experience in early elementary was that it's really important to have that support in place, otherwise all the gifted services in the world won't make a difference, and you might be setting a child up to not be successful with the gifted services, which in turn backfires when you advocate again for gifted services. Hope that made sense!

I also think that it might work more effectively to address the concerns about next year's teacher through the lens of her needs in her IEP.

Gotta run - hope some of that made sense! Good luck!

polarbear