First IEP

I met with a whole slew of people today at J's school. I was surprised and a bit intimidated to see 7 people around a conference table, waiting for me. I was already quite nervous, having read all sorts of horror stories about antagonistic schools trying to talk parents out of skipping their children up a grade. There's a very entertaining web page made up of these ridiculous stories, which you can visit by clicking this link.

I was prepared with some of J's work, which I'd hurriedly gathered from his "art book" (a binder I slip his special creations into) and other mounds of paper throughout the house. I was prepared to defend my stance that J is gifted. I was prepared to discount J's teacher's apparent disinterest in his abilities.

And I needed none of it!

Everyone there was quite cooperative, even J's teacher. The Challenge Facilitator (she helps run the Gifted program) asked me to tell them about J. I told them that our first inkling was when he was 2, and I was explaining about Easter to him. I told him that the Easter Bunny would come and leave things in his Easter basket. He interrupted me to say, "Yeah, I know, and last year, there were cars in my eggs." I looked back at pictures, and sure enough, he got Hot Wheels in his Easter eggs!  There were exclamations of "whoa!" and "he was TWO? And he remembered when he was ONE?"

Then I told them of how he learned to read. He could read 3- and 4-letter words at age 3 1/2, but wasn't really interested until I "hit the jackpot" buy buying him Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? for his fifth birthday. He read the entire book to me when we got home. 6 months later, when he started kindergarten, he was reading Magic Treehouse books. Now, he's reading 6th grade books, and this summer, he read the Chronicles of Narnia. One lady asked, "Did he just read one of the books?" "No, the whole series," I replied. "And then he watched the movie and told me which parts were different." "Wow!" she said.

I also said that he'd taught himself to add and subtract at age 4, and by 4 1/2, he'd moved on to multiplication by grouping things in equal numbers to count them.

I could have gone on and on, of course, but they seemed to be satisfied, and asked J's teacher to speak. "Well, it's only the 18th day of school," she quipped, "but when J answers questions, it's like he's on a totally different page than any other first grader. He explains that such and such is true because I know that such and such is true. And he thinks in the abstract. It's very obvious that he's thinking very differently from most kids."

"Phew!" I thought. I was so worried that she would have no way of seeing his talents and abilities in a regular first-grade classroom setting.

Then the Challenge Facilitator began to explain the testing process. J will have to test 90th percentile or above to skip to second grade. They don't want him to move up just to become an average second grader. They want him to remain at the top of his class. But skipping a grade doesn't mean he will qualify for the Challenge (gifted) program. For that, he will have to test 98 percentile or higher.  So if he tests between 90th and 97th, we'll have a tough decision to make. But I remember testing in the 98th percentile when I was a kid (although I had no idea what that meant), and I certainly feel like J is smarter than I am, so I have hope that he'll qualify for both skipping and Challenge.

She also talked about the test she'd be administering, which would be academic in nature. It's long, so she'll break it up into 2 or 3 parts to avoid wearing J out. He will be tested by his age, not by grade.

The school psychologist chimed in to talk about her portion of the testing. It will be for cognitive and reasoning skills. I believe this is the part I remember about my own testing as a child. We did puzzles and built with blocks and such things. It was fun. I think J will enjoy it. The psychologist had an excited gleam in her eye when she said, "I can't wait to meet him. He sounds fun!" I'm sure he'll be a very interesting case for her.

One of the administrators had been taking minutes. He read them back to us and I signed a consent for testing, and that was that. I thanked them all for making it so easy.  Then I went out in the lobby to wait for school to end.

While I was out there, the Challenge Facilitator came out and sat down to chat with me. She explained that she'd asked me to talk about J because some parents ask for their child to skip because they'd gone to a Montessori preschool. They claimed that their child already knew everything from kindergarten, so they needed to skip. Early education does not a gifted child make! I feel bad for those parents, who has obviously been planning all of that for years, and made some false assumptions. All that hot-housing was for naught! 

The Facilitator was pleased that J had real reason to be tested, and cleared up some questions that had occurred to me as I sat there and waited. She also told me about a special immersion program in our district at a different elementary school. I was not aware that our district had that program, although our pediatrician had discovered a similar program the next district over. And to my great relief, it is much closer to our home than his current school!  If J tests high enough for the gifted program, and skips to second grade, he would be able to go to that school next year as a third grader. Well, I guess there's great demand to get into that school, so it might not work out that quickly for us. We'd have to win another lottery to get in. It is attached to a regular elementary school, so Z would be able to go there for kindergarten. We'd love to have him get J's kindergarten teacher, but not enough to drive him to a separate school.

I have faith that everything will work out for the best. I'm doing the best I know how, and I can only leave the rest up to God.