Apologies for all that has come before.

Would people post some specific experiences with educational advocacy where DYS has helped. Thank you. It would be good to see different ways how one can use DYS for the day to day needs of education.

Ren

Most of my day-to-day support comes from other parents in the program, but my family consultants have written several letters on DS's behalf, including a few that dealt specifically with acceleration. I think these letters have helped our final outcome. To the best of my knowledge, my school has never taken them up on their numerous offers to be contacted about DS, but I think the offer in itself "intimidates" them into some form of action.

It's one thing for me to say things about how smart and rare DS is, even with data that backs me up. It's a totally different experience to have that in writing from an organization like DITD!

When I went to court last time and my XH was questioning my dd's whole grade skip, I provided the judge with the acceptance letter from DITD. The judge is completely impressed with my dd's abilities and I feel that is the reason he has so far backed me up in all the educational choices I have made rather than side with my XH who thinks I am "pushing" my dd.

delurking again... lol

We homeschool, so it's rare that we need anything formal to deal with acceleration, but there was one situation where I was asking for an outside class to consider admitting DS at a ridiculously young age, and in I was delighted to find that the person who got to make that decision had heard of DYS (in fact he brought it up!), and that just being able to say that DS was a YS was sufficient for the guy to take my word that he was ready for the class. It was like a perfect "I'm not making this up" keyword... almost magical in that particular situation where I was sure I was going to have to do some serious explaining and begging, but instead just had to say "Davidson" and it was all clear.

But like Dottie said, my day-to-day assistance is mostly from other parents. I can post a question that elsewhere would be shot down (my 8 year old wants to do Euclid, is there a useful study guide?) and find that I'm not the first to be in that situation and that those who came before have good solid advice with URLs and ISBN numbers.

DITD checked for us to make sure that partial homeschooling is not allowed at our public school. Unfortunately, I was right that it is not. But it was nice to have someone "official" who could check on it.

Since we're homeschooling now, we haven't needed them to do any advocacy. I wouldn't hesitate to ask if something came up, however. Our consultant has seemed extremely supportive and knowledgeable. And just feeling like we have backup if we need it gives me peace of mind.

They were able to find more information about gifted school which is to open in 2009. I tried to get the information on my own, but I wasn't getting anywhere. I guess there is a difference between me and DITD leaving messages They also confirmed that there is really no gifted school in our county

We will hs next year and recommendation letters may be hard to get, so I hope being DYS will take care of most of the requirements for gt programs.

Thanks, these were very insightful.

ren

Off topic, sorry, but . . .
Krison, where did you find information about partial homeschooling? I've been looking and can't find anything that says it is or isn't allowed. I'll bet it isn't, but I'd like to find out. It probably varies by state and maybe even by school district? Thanks.

I found info that New York doesn't allow partial homeschooling. I think it was in a FAQ at the NY homeschoolers website.

I found out just by talking to other homeschoolers in my area. That's why I was glad that DITD checked with someone official for me. I don't recall how they found the info now. It matched what I'd been told, so I only paid attention to the confirmation, not how they got the confirmation.

I'm sorry I'm not more help...Hoagies might have some info or one of the homeschool websites, if you check any info they have about your state.