Just a little mini-vent...

gcvmom

Here we go again!
difficult child 2 applied to transfer to our district GATE magnet school last spring for two main reasons:

1. For a clean social slate since many of the problems he's had over the years are with the same group of kids, and although the bullying has been addressed and stopped, he has a repuation as a reactive kid (and in truth, he IS reactive because of his disorder). He's all for this transfer and can't wait to go someplace new where he has some hope of making friends and having some semblance of a social life.

2. He was GATE identified two years ago, but I opted to keep him at his home school. Our hope is that he will also "fit in" better with a class of kids who are more like him and will likely have similar interests and perspectives.

His old principal encouraged this change and helped facilitate meetings with the new principal, got difficult child 2's info over to that schools speech/language coordinator and psychologist, and even called the district GATE office to find out if our application went through. We were told "YES" there is a spot for him at the school, so we thought everything was set for September.

Then a few weeks ago, I got a form letter from the district stating that difficult child 2 is on a wait list for that school! I emailed the principal immediately and she replied quickly that she'd look into it (this is making her look bad, too!).

Turns out he IS on a wait list because some of the kids who are already at the school qualified for GATE and so they get first pick at the open spots. So now we have to wait until possibly early September before we know if difficult child 2 will be able to go to that school :(

I know it seems a minor thing in the grand scheme, but he has been wanting OUT of his home school for a long time now... this really means a lot to him. If he has to stay at his home school, the only consolation is he knows all the admin adults there and he knows they all want to help him. I guess another option would be for me to home school him... but I'm not sure about the particulars for our state -- I seem to remember hearing that it's become much more difficult for a non-credentialed person to do that.

Okay, thanks for having some whine with me!
 

Sheila

Moderator
How disappointing.

Forgive me, but I can't recall specifically if difficult child 2. But for others who may read this and their child has an IEP, this is an instance where the specific location for service delivery needed to be written into the IEP. The IEP supercedes all "waiting lists."

Fingers crossed that it works out. Soooo disappointing for you and difficult child.
 

gcvmom

Here we go again!
I'd never even considered drafting this into the IEP. The school transfer was sort of an afterthought. Although, his IEP is set up to render services regardless of where he is in the district. Too late now, I guess! Anyway, hopefully he'll still get in. I was assured he is first in line on the wait list...
 
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