Is it common for a school district to have no policy in place on acceleration of grade levels. The only policy my son's district seem to have is that their policy is they do not skip children up, period. Is this common or unusual? I will later explain my problem but i wanted to see if any of you have come across this. It seems strange to not even have an evaluation procedure but to just say its "not our policy" The reason behind it is that they would have other children that are intelligent and have high standardized test scores to follow suit and make the same request. I am like well wouldn't that be a good thing and not a deterrent???

Please advise with your thoughts. All feedback is welcomed and appreciated.

This is common in public schools; private schools are more open to grade skipping.

Ex. Last year I was frustrated with my son's situation and called a public school that's down the road from us about a mile. We're just outside the boundaries for this school, but we're close, and I'd been told it was a great school. I talked to the principal and he told me he was against the idea on principle. He didn't ask about my son's academic abilities, but he did make sure to ask if I let him play outside and implied that I was doing nothing but forcing him to learn mathematics and spelling. Argh.

Val

Shar,
From my experience it is very common to have no formal policy about grade skips but an informal written in blood on a stone policy that it can not be allowed. Lots of persistence and squeaky wheel syndrome may help
Good Luck

We have a policy but it's not advertised in any way, nor offered up by anyone, but curious parents can dig around and find it. I stumbled upon it at just the right time and have taken advantage of it several times now, for both subject skips and full grade ones. In a district of 3000 plus, I only know of 2 kids in this "generation" who have used it. Supposedly they did this sort of thing all the time back in the day.

The big catch for our policy is that you have to request the action in late winter to request something for the following school year. From the comments we get from the general public, I can't see there being a high demand for this sort of thing.

We are fortunate too to have a state mandate to help back up the policy, should any one administrator decide to pull the power card.

Our district has a procedure for acceleration but it is lengthy, convoluted and not publicized in any way. Our principal seems to have glossed over a few steps for DS.

Maybe its a regional thing but in the south texas in particualr grade skips required only that a child prove exceptional. A gifted child warranted a tranfer into a more challenging programs and sometimes more challenging school. i have found this to be true in VA, MD, and PA as well.

What constitutes "exceptional" though? Is that detailed in the procedure?

Wasn't the cover story from Time Magazine last summer from Texas? If I remember correctly, the child was not permitted to make a greatly needed third skip, regardless.

Anyway, skipping at all is certainly not the norm here in PA!

Yes, I have to admit, I can't believe it's all that easy...I e-know too many people from those states who have been through the wringer!

yes, we decided we'd rather not send our children through the wringer, it's just not healthy!