Why does it take so long to get things done with the school system?
Remember the letter saying Matthew qualified for gifted? It was dated November 17th. I called the school psychologist this week asking why we hadn’t heard anything, knowing that a meeting should have been scheduled to discuss his results. She informed me that I needed to contact the staffing specialist at his school, who is conveniently only there two days a week.
I left the staffing specialist a message on Monday, and waited, knowing she’d be in the office today. Since she didn’t call me back yet, I called her, and she informed me that his meeting isn’t scheduled yet. I pressed her to schedule it, and explained I’d be gone for a week in January and didn’t want to miss it. (The school typically schedules these things and sends you a letter telling you when to show up.)
She told me the first thing she had available wasn’t until FEBRUARY! What the heck? The testing was done in October, the results sent in November, and you aren’t even going to discuss the plans with me for my kid for another 2 months? Unacceptable. I nicely explained the time line of events to her, and told her that I knew after the meeting it would still take another few weeks before Mathew ever saw the inside of a gifted classroom…would he even get in this year?
It’s absolutely ridiculous that the wheels turn so slowly. Gifted children, learning disabled, those needing speech or other services from the school - it shouldn’t take this long! The only one who suffers is the child who is missing out on things THEY need to be a better student, to grow, and to learn. After expressing my dismay at the time this process is taking, she squeezed us in for two weeks from now. It makes me wonder how often people get pushed to a later date just because the school CAN do it.
Comments
My son was tested in March of his 5th grade year. It took them so long to get everything done that he did not enter the program until the first day of 6th grade.
My daughter was tested in the beginning of May during her 4th grade year and entered the program near the end of October in her 5th grade year.
This is ridiculous, it should not take them this long to implement the children into these programs.
Shouldn’t they be tested alot earlier though? Have you tried writing a letter CC: principal and all concerned? That way if you should have a formal complaint against whomever is the inefficient person is, there is a record in their system.
I complained this week via a letter, attention to the person and CC: all people concerned. To think that I was only complaining of an inefficient library system. That must have jolted people out of their oblivion and everybody in school knows about it. hahaha.
The paperwork and all of the meetings and documentation involved in getting any kid an IEP is super time consuming in FL. I am not as familir with the process of getting a kid switched over to a gifted program, but gifted does fall under the general umbrella of ESE and I know getting a kid into an ESE classroom can take the better part of a year sometimes.
It’s crappy that the staffing specialist has to cover more than one school. I am willing to bet that the ESE teachers there are not happy about not having that resource there fulltime either.
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