Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments School of choice

Dd12, currently an 8th grader, wants to choice into a high school in a different district next year. She attended 4th grade in that district before skipping 5th and moving back to our assigned middle school in the assigned district. We live right on the border btwn the two districts and it is not uncommon for some choicing to occur btwn the two -- mostly with people choicing out of our assigned district and into the one to the north.

So, I have the application in for next year and I got an email from the high school registrar with some follow up questions including whether dd has an IEP, is in special ed, or has ever been in special ed or on an IEP. My first thought was that they were trying to cherry pick students which is crummy but wouldn't impact dd.

Others have now told me that they think that, due to budget, perhaps the other district doesn't want any kids who are going to cost them more -- including gifted kids. This district does offer dual enrollment in high school wherein a student can take college courses for credit free of charge. The district covers the cost. Our assigned district does not offer this option.

I can't hide the fact that dd has a GT identification. Since she was in their district in the past, they have records on her. Also, b/c she just turned 12 and is in 8th grade, her age alone is a give away. A lot of kids with birthdays around the time of her bd were held out a year to start school and would be 6th graders this year. She made the cut-off by days to start K when she did.

Any thoughts? Should I ask the school if her id is likely to impact her acceptance?

We are choice enrolled at our school though we are in-district. For us, the question about the IEP was part of a standard district form. I think that it is more to flag the kid for assessment once they get in the school. Legally, they can't discriminate based on this. Catching them at it would be hard to prove. The lottery for spaces at our school is not public.

Once you are enrolled in the other district that district gets the money for your kid. Our district educates a lot kids from outside the district. The conversations that I have heard indicate that if the school has extra space in the building, the out-of-district kids are viewed as a revenue source. Fuller schools are more efficient to run -- fixed costs are distributed over more kids.

Have you heard of GT kids getting turned away? I have extended family up by you. They enrolled from out-of-district to go to the IB program and didn't have any problems.

No, but I don't personally know too many people who have choiced in from out of district. Those I do know don't have gifted kids or at least don't have kids with a GT id.

Our assigned school in district does actually have an IB program and the middle school dd is currently attending has an IB MYP. The school she wants to choice to isn't overly full and does not have IB, but dd feels that AP may be a better fit for her and I'd tend to agree.

The main issue for her is demographics. Her current middle school has about 16% of the kids ided as gifted. The demographics of the area it draws from makes it likely that it would have fewer than an avg amount of gifted kids whereas the school she wants to attend draws from an area where it is likely that there will be more kids like her. She wants a more challenging high school with more intellectual peers rather than a school with a lot of kids with GT ids where they have to teach to a group who doesn't learn like she does in the accelerated classes.

She finds that the classes that are full of high achieving non-gifted kids don't approach things the same way. The ones she has enjoyed the most have been things like a quarter long writing pull out where the GT coordinator only took maybe 20% of the GT ided kids in her grade or a workshop that only had 5% of the GT ided kids so they had kids who were likely actually gifted or at least close.

It seems to me that if your current district has really broad GT id criteria, the incoming district won't necessarily know that your child is more likely to cost them lots of extra money (University classes, etc.) vs. pull-out programming.

Unless they still have IQ scores from 4th grade.

Good luck!

They do have IQ scores and achievement scores in the 99th percentile for all subjects in 4th grade. They apparently don't purge records until the child is of an age that s/he should have graduated already. I guess that we'll see. I'll let you all know when we hear if she got in.