2E Network

Hi! I'm starting this blog to promote our online email support network for twice-exceptional children and their families. We have experienced many difficulties in getting support for our two "2E" children, because their intellectual abilities are high but their school performance has been average or below average. Many administrators don't want to recognize that these gifted children are struggling, because they are able to score well on standardized tests, which makes the school look good. However, the more children the school has identified as special needs or special education, the more it tends to affect their funding for other programs. The attitude is that as long as these children are scoring well on stardardized tests they don't need to have any educational or academic support. However, as in the case of our 7th grader, who is highly gifted and has been diagnosed with ADHD, he is now failing some of his classes because the elementary school didn't prepare him for middle school and the middle school has resisted helping him because he's not labled as "special education". We have had to hire an attorney to get support for him. We fought for the 504 and now we are preparing to fight for the IEP.
Our younger son, in 5th grade and also gifted, has had spinal cord surgery and is recovering at home. As long as he is at home with the Hospital-Homeschooling tutor he will be able to do his schoolwork at his own pace, but if he needs and wants to reintegrate back into the public school gifted magnet program, hopefully by next fall, he will need to have an IEP for orthopedic or other health impairment, to be able to work at his own pace, while focusing on his health issues. We will see what the public middle school will do to support him when the time comes.
Does anyone have any resources to share? Thanks! Marcie