Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Going in circles

Kerry - I'm sorry things didn't go so well. Before we actually got a grade skip for DS, we were also given a whole bunch of reasons why the school wouldn't do that. We had success with having the school fill out an IAS form, and I can't remember if you already did that with this school and the first skip? It gives them an objective way to monitor whether a skip would be appropriate or not.

We also argued that the differentiation would be so much easier with the skip, and it was, though not perfect. (We have had 3 schools in 2 years, so we can sort of relate to the moves.) Is your DD in DYS? The family consultants can help with ideas for what to do for your DD. Also, there is s free service for educator's here, where they can join e-lists or get access to documents explaining how to help HG kids: http://www.davidsongifted.org/edguild/

I think you gave wonderful responses to their arguments. It's hard to speak clearly when people are saying things that don't make sense. But at least they admitted that they don't get your kid; this is your opportunity to help teach them, and hopefully they will respond.

I agree with Edwin - keep trying. We would have been in a similar boat, likely asking for a second skip, if an opening in a school for HG kids hadn't come up midyear (45 miles away). Good luck!

Ha! If you have a kid who could graduate from high school by age 10, shouldn't that tell them that it won't do her any good to refuse to let her out of 3rd grade?

You know, I think that was the thing that got to me the most - they didn't seem to get that what they were saying was contradicting what they had said a minute before.

Edwin, we are looking at going on to the next step higher at the school, but the state just passed a huge budget cut and ALL of the teachers at the school in grades 4 and 5 have been given pink slips and the school doesn't know if they will be allowed to even hire them back, so we're now not even sure about the future of the entire program.

We have done an IAS before, but not with this school, so if we find out that there will still be a program next year then we'll have one ready for them to look at.

This may really end up to be the time that we finally give up the last of our gifted denial and accept that homeschooling is the best option for DD. (Boy have we hung on to that for a long time now. )

We applied to DYS when DD was 6, but her WISC IV score was just under the cut off, and since the tester had never tested gt kids before, and she hit the ceiling in a bunch of sub-tests we know the results are not very accurate. So, we are looking into getting her retested before the end of the school year. Then we'll see where things are and if we can re-apply.

We are looking into other schools in the area for flexibility and a better fit, we actually were already sort of looking because it hasn't been a great fit from the start, but you know - a somewhat of a fit is better than the bad fit we had before, so we've lived with it.