HI Everyone,
This is one of my concerns too and I’m trying to do some research on it. However, being in a rural part of Alaska, makes it a bit hard. So any help from you will be greatly appreciated too.
Ok - so I"m an elementary classroom teacher in a remote Eskimo village. So the issues in our school are mainly trying to keep up with the state standards and the standards of the US. We are economically disadvantaged and most of our students come to school not fluent in either their home language or English. Basically, our kids are WAY behind.
But my son is bilingual and already reading since he was 18 months old. He knows so many things… So I am VERY concerned about school. Not that I won’t be able to supplement from home. But I feel that by the time my son gets to school he is even going to outgrow even what I can do for him given our limited amount of resources in this rural and remote situation.
So here’s the thing, I believe it is federal law - perhaps the Family Educational Rights and Education Act (FERPA) (I forget) anyhow, Gifted and Talented children fall under the rules of Special Education and by law they must have accomodations and an individualized education plan (IEP). Now the problem is when and how are gifted and also special needs children identified.
Right now there is a big push to “child find” in preschool. Also from a SPED standpoint it goes much faster if a child has been identified in pre-school. So in the case of our village if a healthcare worker or a pre-school teacher or a parent suspects that their child has a learning disability, we try to get them to see a medical doctor and a psychologist for identification so that by the time the child enters kindergarten the individualized education plan is already created and teachers know what to do from day one.
Well the problem is that this is a pretty accepted approach for children with learning delays but at least in my village nothing is done for the “gifted” student. However, I’ve never seen a student come into kindergarten yet being able to read. So that might just be an issue here in our village. I talked with our school SPED teacher and I guess that our district doesn’t have a “gifted” program. However, I find that hard to believe as our state mandates that money go towards gifted programs - so maybe kids in Anchorage get all the money - I don’t know.
So what I need to find out next is at what age can a student be identified as gifted and how it is done. I suspect that it will be through a psychologist and probably with a test like the Standford-Binet or the Wechsler Preschool & Primary Scale of Intelligence – III (WPPSI-III). Some states wait until 2nd grade once standardized tests are given and the student scores 90% better than their peers. Alaska doesn’t test until 3rd grade and in my opinion that is just too late.
Anyhow, I just wanted to bring this up because I am sure that many parents are not informed that gifted students have legal rights just as special needs students do. And that the schools must make accomodations for gifted students.
I’m running out of time for this post - but anyhow, if anyone finds out the age students can begin to be identified and what the standard process is - I’d appreciate it. And of course I will share once I know. But please realize that the public schools have an obligation to serve your child at his or her level.
Thank you very much for sharing, Purplefungi. It might be very boring for you to go to school to learn something you’ve learned long time ago.
