On Tuesday, June 11th, we will hold a free seminar about school challenges, school woes, #giftedproblems in school. Gifted Parenting Education Series in partnership with Chicago Gifted Community Center.

Our state has no Gifted IEP. That is, no gifted individualized education program. In our state, we can’t put any accommodation for a child in the plan if the accommodation has to do with above average performance. That doesn’t mean that you do not have room to work with your child’s team at school. If your child has an IEP for any reason, that actually can sometimes hinder advocacy as the focus tends to be on the child’s weaknesses, not their strengths. Again, there is room to work with the school.

Tomorrow we will be holding our first parent education series, and we will cover the roles of everyone on a child’s school team in helping the child meet gifted needs and strategies for successfully getting your child the support they need for their education, in a public or private school, as well as supporting them in a homeschool environment. We will be posting resources here following the presentation based on the questions in the forum.

If your child goes to a public school, and you are interested in acceleration, you need to be prepared to work at the district level if your child’s district does not have the acceleration policy in place to support your child. We will also be discussing this component.

Obviously, if your school has a gifted coordinator, besides your school teacher, this is a great place to start. We will have a gifted coordinator at our panel tomorrow. A school or private psychologist can also help by measuring the academic needs of the child and help support the social and emotional needs of a child.

What is the most important thing in learning how to advocate for your child in a school setting? It is to assume the best about your child’s educational team. It is to assume that the team wants to help. Sometimes, it is important to first understand the school’s financial and skill challenges and to work with the team within those constraints. It is also a very good time to pick a “slow” time of the year for your effort. The first 2 weeks of school is a busy time, for example. Getting it done in the last 2 weeks of summer may be better in some, but not other schools. the second 2 weeks of school is a great time, and by October, the teachers are most likely to listen to you as they feel like they know your child. Now is an excellent time to get a few meetings in to create support for your gifted child for next year.

Gifted 102: Gifted school challenges

Tuesday, June 11, 2019, 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM - Novel Coworking, 405 West Superior Street in Chicago