We were recently considering changing school districts. My friend, also with a TAG child, says I'll never find the sort of communication and attention from the District Superintendent and the Asst Super as I [we] have now. I think she might be right.

I just wonder do those of you with kids in public school get frequent face time, phone calls and emails from your Dist Spr and Ass't Spr?

Here, they hold monthly TAG Meetings which we attend and the District is right away on the phone or email [even on evenings and weekends] to address questions or concerns. Is this standard practice for your school[s]?

RCM

I think that sounds like an ideal situation. I've only spoken the the Dist. Ass't Spr. once and I hear that is pretty rare. We have a large district with two high schools, maybe that's why they aren't as accessable.
We have a district supported gifted association that was started about 20 years ago by parents in order to improve gifted services. They were successful for starting an everyday pull-out for LA and Math, plus a district magnet program for kids who score in the top 2% that starts in 4th grade. The curriculum is supposed to be two years advanced. I've heard they only take kids who score 150 on the CogAt.
It sounds great in theory........
Unfortunately after looking into it, I've found it doesn't support HG+ kids as much as it seems it should.
I got a look at the textbook they use starting in 4th and DD8 has already done most of it in second grade.
The best support we have gotten is from the principal. The principals seem to have the freedom to be more flexible within their own school, so I would not move the girls to another school because I couldn't be sure they would get the same services they receive now. Realistically, I'm not sure they will stay in school, though, there is a good chance we will homeschool at some point.

Wow, monthly meetings? That sounds great! I wish we had that sort of involvement from anyone! (And I realize I'm going to have to be the one to start it, if there's any hope.)

But I do interact quite a bit with the "higher ups". We have a small district (3500-ish), and for as outside of the box as DS9's situation is, we've needed to move up the food chain to be heard. The #2 guy attends all of our meetings (and #1 doesn't really get involved with this sort of thing). I need that level of authority to make the changes we now have in place (radical acceleration).

We've gotten so much though at this point, that I dare not move, as imperfect as it still is.

I have never even met our superintendent or anyone higher up than the principal. But we have always gotten what our son needed just by chatting with the teacher and very occassionally the principal. In the 7 years DS has been in this district, there have been about 3 meetings for parents of GT kids which were a waste of my time (mostly a brief intro to the programs and then GT kids reading to us for "entertainment,"), so I am not yearning for more.

But, frankly, since the teachers have been great advocates for DS and because DS is good at letting the school know what he needs, I don't see this lack of contact as a negative. He continues to thrive at his school.

I think it varies a lot by school district, we are in a district of about 22,000, the board memebers, principals, dist spr, dist gate, etc... all have had a very open door and have been easy to reach. That does not mean that we agreed or the schools could even change, but they where good at trying to work within there program, budget...

acs, I really envy your situation. I really think that is the way to go, if possible.

I'm not too involved and generally ask for a meeting only if things are going badly and work needs to be done. When things were going badly in the past, I met with the principal privately, which led to a bigger meeting with many district level staff involved, and a lot of progress was made.

After that, we only had brief meetings with teachers or the GT teacher as needed to update GIEPs or discuss new issues. Some of that has been done by email without any official meetings. I've found all players to be responsive when needed, but I don't want to just touch base regularly when things are going fine. It's a huge hassle for me to be at the school during school hours, so I'm quite happy with less face time!

We are in a huge district. I have met the super and worked with people in the district office on health issues. I have never talked to them about GT issues.

I do have regular contact with the principal, in fact we just exchanged emails this week.

Thanks everyone. It seems that my friend is right, then. Ooo, I hate when she's right. <grin>

For some reason, and I'm not complaining, upper Admin seems very invested in our school's TAG program [and we're not even funded or mandated!]. Any time TAG parents have an idea or complaint they're all over it - "what can we do, how can we make TAG better ...?" I guess I just assumed that this would be standard if we changed districts.

I've never really had a major issue with our DS10 but we DO have a LOT of ideas on how to make programs better or invent programs or even run them; it's for stuff mainly to benefit all of the TAG students for the District.

We still need a bigger house. That hasn't changed. DS's musical gear needs it's own room[s] at this point. We're probably going to start looking for larger homes within our District.

Thanks everyone for your responses.

RCM

Welcome RPM9!

sounds like a district that has figured out the best way to 'make friends' with the Parent's of Gifteds. We can be a rough bunch - or a wonderful hardworking bunch - depending on how we are handled, no?

Can you 'build on' to your current home?

Smiles,
Grinity