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This is long, so please bear with me. Ds (8) has been accepted into an all day gifted program in our school district, starting next year (3rd grade). In his current school he is in the primary TAG program (kids are tested in kindergarten and if they qualify they start a 1 hour/week pull out for gifted services--this is K thru 2nd grade). Ds's school is in our neighborhood and we like his school. Dd (6) is also a kindergartener at the same school.
My problem is that there is also a full time gifted program in our current school. Ds didn't make the cut for that program---it's more accelerated than the program in which he was accepted. I know I should be thankful that ds is getting any services at all but I hate to move him from our school. The other school is a few miles away and ds would have to ride the bus across a dangerous intersection, so I would drive him and would have 2 kids in 2 different schools at the same time. Right now we walk less than 1/2 mile to school.
Ds also receives speech therapy at school from a wonderful woman. Before receiving ds's acceptance letter (all 2nd graders are tested), I was getting ready to formally request
to have an educational evaluation for his handwriting/spelling issues. Ds also has ADHD & possibly orthographic dyslexia. Yes---it is possible to be gifted and have special needs!!!!! When we got the ADHD dx last summer we also had other extensive testing done which included the WISC IV (IQ test) and his full scale score was in the gifted range.
I can appeal & have ds retested to see if he can get into our current school's program but like I stated before it is more accelerated and I'm not sure if he could handle it. Like the school he was accepted into it is all day/every day & much different than his current pull out program. The benefits of him staying are that it would be much easier on me (I also have a 3 yo), we wouldn't have to switch speech therapists, the comfort of the familiar (friends/teachers/staff/routine), etc. The other school is a Title I school (I'm not exactly sure what that means but I know it's not good).
If they do decide to retest ds and he gets into our school's program, I'm worried about him keeping pace with the others in areas of handwriting & spelling. Those areas I'm hoping he'll get extra help from school next year anyway or we will have to hire a private tutor. My 3rd option is to deny gifted services and just keep him regular 3rd grade but do supplemental gifted services (offered at a local college). I would have to pay for those not so cheap services & we are trying to get out of debt.
My stomach is in knots over this because I'm not sure what is the right thing for ds & the rest of our family. Any thoughts/suggestions/BTDT? Thanks in advance.
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WOW!!! That is a hard choice. My dd was in a gifted program in 4th & 5th and I absolutely LOVED it!! Not only was the teacher exceptional and made learning so much fun, but I felt like my dd fit in better socially there. It was other kids more like her, whereas she had sometimes had trouble fitting in in a traditional classroom. The other added bonus of it is that when she went to middle school and then on to high school, she still took the advanced and honors classes and so it was the same small group of kids together in most of the classes. So now she's really good friends with a huge group of kids who are all exceptional students, leaders at the school, well behaved children with responsible involved parents. I've always believed much of a child's success comes from the friends they surround themselves with, and I've felt INCREDIBLY blessed that she has landed in with such outstanding children. So from the educational and social perspective it has been a godsend for us. BUT...this is harder in your case because I didn't have to move my dd and it's hard to know what I would have done in that situation. Does your son have an opinion? You're right....many gifted kids have special needs, especially a lot of ADD kids are very bright. My dd also has ADD and is a HORRIBLE speller, even at 17. So I wouldn't let that keep you from putting him in. Tough choice....let us know what you decide. HTH
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I'm no expert in this area, as I'm not there yet, but having an Aspergers child, I see it coming. MANY SN children are indeed gifted, especially Aspergers who have conquered many subjects and are ahead of their peers, getting bored as they have mastered it - yet they have problems in other subjects. The individualized attention is priceless.
As a mom, I would go with your gut...what you feel is right. I would also see if you can have a face-to-face or at least a phone conversation with the principal and even the district's SN rep (ours is called for Exceptional Children). See what they say and take it from there - also talk w/the Resource Teacher at both places, as they are key to services.
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I just wanted to say that no matter what you choose definitely keep him in some gifted program. I was in the GT in school and it was wonderful. Definitely an experience I am glad to have had.
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I agree - follow your Mother's intuition. But do a little research first. If I am not mistaken - being a Title I school does not mean the school is bad. It has to do with schools that get extra federal funding. My understanding of the program is that a school qualified based on the percentage of students in the school that are considered at a high risk for dropping out. This is not determined by actual academic information but rather on ethnicity and income levels. So if a particular school happens to encompas an area of town that is highly minority and low income there is a good chance that they would qualify as Title I. Here is Texas where we have a high minority population almost all our schools are classified as Title I.
Also - Title I requires the schools to meet special requirements in order to get the funding. For example, there are higher qualifications required for the teachers in Title I schools and they are limited in the number of non-degreed personnel they can hire.
I hope this helps. Like I said - this is just my understanding (I have lots of family in education). Just Google it and I'm sure you will be able to find out more.
amy
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More info about Title 1:
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Originally Posted by desertmom
I'm no expert in this area, as I'm not there yet, but having an Aspergers child, I see it coming. MANY SN children are indeed gifted, especially Aspergers who have conquered many subjects and are ahead of their peers, getting bored as they have mastered it - yet they have problems in other subjects. The individualized attention is priceless.
As a mom, I would go with your gut...what you feel is right. I would also see if you can have a face-to-face or at least a phone conversation with the principal and even the district's SN rep (ours is called for Exceptional Children). See what they say and take it from there - also talk w/the Resource Teacher at both places, as they are key to services.
My dd had a boy with aspergers in her gifted class. I think it really helped him. Because he was so smart all the kids respected him despite his "quirks". I think he had had a hard time fitting in a traditional classroom also, but flourished in the GT classroom.
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I can only tell u of my experience. I was put in a bilingual language class. the class was designed to help enlgish as a second language students. I was not one of them but since I had a very high spanish comprehension I was put in the class. From that moment on I almost never went to class. It was way too easy for me. I started getting into alot of trouble after that as I was VERY BORED. If u think your ds is likely to be bored then I would say put him somewhere he will be challenged and thrive.
allgirls