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We don't have a gt coordinator in our district which is probably why we've had so many problems. When we did, DD was accelerated no problem. After that everything kind of fell apart for DS, because there was no coordinator to go to and no one in the district with appropriate training/knowledge in gt. I hear about people having g/t coordinators in SCHOOLS. Um, forget about having one in the school, we didn't even have one in a district of a dozen schools.

Don't give up yet! We have had success and now have a fairly easy time of getting our child's needs met. Granted, it took moving child to a school with a great principal, but it worked. I was still anxious about advocating but it was well worth it.

This exactly. We were pushed from person to person, school to school, with no real follow up because no one took responsibility, it wasn't their problem ultimately, etc. We also found that without anyone designated in that position, no one understood the testing or issues, or wanted to invest the effort in trying to understand.

Yep, supposedly our district has an acceleration policy but the principal didn't even know where I could get a copy (then when I did get it, the policy was unrealistic and other aspects of the policy, for instance schools should provide XYZ in terms of differentiation, were NEVER followed by any of these schools, because the schools don't even know what the policies are and there is no one to coordinate/oversee).

This is what happens when districts try to cut their budgets. They first go to G/T, then they go to special ed (or at least that is what happened with ours).
The district would send parents proposals of what should be cut, including a list of things like "increase class sizes by 5 students", "eliminate all crossing guards on major highways", "Elimate all busing for students living closer than 2 miles to the school", "Cut school psychologists and eliminate school guidance counselors", "Cut intervention programs for reading and math". "Cut funding for G/T." With a list like that, no one is going to argue for the necessity of keeping G/T. The ironic thing is that this is not a poor district by any means, the administrators just badly mismanage funding.

Hey AvoCado,

I just want to also say - don't assume it will all be bad. If you read some of my other posts, you'll see we've had many ups and downs. But all in all, the public school is helping DS7 in lots of ways.

I will admit that he is not challenged academically every day, or even most days. But he has lots of challenges with self-regulation, executive function, etc. And the school has helped a ton with those, and keeps on helping. Lots more good than bad there, even though I know all to well how challenging he can be when he is really struggling.

And lord knows he is having to develop some grit or resilience or a growth mindset or whatever you want to call it. Not about academics. But he tries, fails, and tries again day after day after day to get better at self-regulation and executive function. And when he's calm, he can clearly see a shining trail of improvement behind him - hopefully ahead of him, too.

I think this will serve him very well when it comes time to tackle harder material. Or really - academic material that challenges him at all. Could he be tackling that stuff now? Yes - and we do some at home. So it stays in the context of math is beautiful and science is soul-satisfying and reading is just the BEST way to end your day snuggled up under the covers.

Ack - getting long and I'm not making my point. Let's try this: his future happiness and opportunities will be based on academic firepower AND ability to learn and apply it. The public school is doing much to help position him to learn. Meanwhile, I have zero concern about the firepower, so long as we're keeping the spark alive at home. And FWIW - I have concrete reasons to believe that post-elementary, our district will begin to have lots more flexibility to give him meatier academic challenges.

Day at a time here! But really - it's working well enough that I wouldn't look to change schools. I hope it will be the same for you.

Best of luck to you,
Sue
P.S. And now, having cursed myself, I'll turn up my phone ringer so I won't miss the now-inevitable call from the school!

And here in California, schools can now apply for GT funds and instead use them to buy band uniforms. And the band played on.

Profoundly Gifted Bands

On another note, I am pleasantly surprised that California schools can apply for GT funds - the last time that I checked, there was no budget for GT programming at all (one of the biggest factors for me to seek out non-PS options).

Thanks HK, ConnectingDots, Suevv … just a moment of panic there! So nervous … where we are there are no GT coordinators, no programs, no nothing. So after 2 years of politely mentioning things, I had enough and have requested a meeting with a list of concrete demands! But I know I'm just going to get confused raised eyebrows, sigh. Not sure how to negotiate with 'politicians' … :s