summer camp situation

[♥ms.pacman♥]

I have a bit of an odd situation with summer camp plans for my DD.

DD is in 1st grade, and a pretty avid and advanced reader (and a pretty amazing speller). Her teacher has said to us several times that she was recommending her for testing to qualify for the gifted program. in December we did submit an application for it. We were told that testing was going to be in February and notifications of who had "gotten in" to the GT program were going to be mailed out (snail-mail) April 11. In the meantime, for the past several months, DD (along with a few other students in her class) has been getting pulled out 1x a week to go with GT teacher in the GT classroom (which I don't know if it really "counts" as GT services, but from what I know, seems very similar. DS had done something similar in Kinder before he actually qualified for GT services).

Meanwhile...DH & I are trying to sort out summer camp plans. I work outside the home full-time, so convenience is key...to have both kids in same summer camp would be ideal, obviously.

Our school district offers 3 different summer school "tracks" for elementary students- one general enrichment (open to all students), one for remedial classes (teacher recommendation only) and one for gifted students (for kids in the GT program, receiving GT services). My DS (2nd Grade, who qualified for GT services in Kinder) did the GT summer camp last summer and he LOVED it. His BFF was also in it and they rode the bus together. My DS was happy as a clam and raved about this GT summer camp. From his folders every week it was clear it was a pretty good program and they were doing advanced stuff and not just watching TV & movies most of the day (like many other summer camps). It was a bit of a hassle though bc during that time DD had to go to a daycare across town, so DH & I had to split pickup and drop-off duties. One of us would have to pick up DS at lunch and bring him to the daycare where DD was at. Annoying, but doable.

Anyway, so DH & I have been talking about summer camp plans....kept thinking that ideally, both DS and DD would go to the same GT summer camp run by the school district. It is SO convenient. It is super cheap ($300 for 4 weeks of half-day camp) and location is super convenient (at a middle school 10 min away from my work) and it is a good quality summer camp. And, dc's BFF's/classmates are likely to be in the program so they are motivated to go for that reason too. they get to choose their classes(art, science, reading, math, Spanish, etc). Though, we were kind of limbo and hesitant to sign up DS bc we still didn't know if DD had officially gotten in to GT program.

Which brings us to last week. I went online to our parent portal for our school district to see availability of summer camps for the kids. For DS, it showed the "regular" track of summer school classes, and the GT summer school classes as well. Then I went to DD, out of curiosity...and it showed the same class options..including the GT summer school class options (for her grade)! So then I selected the GT summer classes for her and I paid for them. Bc of the timing (early April), I took this to mean that she had gotten in to the GT program and we just hadn't gotten notification yet....I mean, it showed those options for her, it took my money and let me register her for it, just like it did for my DS.

Then yesterday, we get the notification letter from the school, saying DD was NOT being recommended for GT services. Listed all her test scores, etc...which were WAY better than last year an pretty darn good but not all were in the 90%ile so I'm guessing that is why she didn't get in. Oh well..that itself is not big deal. I'm not complaining about that part.

But now I'm totally confused re: summer school. So she didn't actually qualify for GT services, but they let me sign her up for GT summer classes? my CC statement clearly shows the $300 for DD - LOL. And after seeing how we could sign her up for these classes, we had already told the kids that they were going to to the GT summer camp together, and signed them both up. Yes, maybe premature on my part, but dude- is it so far-fetched to assume that if you can sign up/pay for a class, that means you're allowed to take the class?? LOL. I mean, I found it hard to imagine that the GT summer class options were visible and available online to every student, so I assumed if GT summer class options were visible/available to her then that meant she was allowed to take them. It didn't show any remedial classes for her, so I had figured that the summer class options shown were specific to every student.

Soooo...now what. I'm kinda hesitant to try to get clarification bc I do want DD to be able to take these classes. do I just "play dumb" , do nothing and just keep assuming she can take these GT summer classes? It would make our lives so much easier this summer to have both DC in this same camp. I can't imagine they would say "ooops, sorry that was an error, DD wasn't meant to be taking these classes! here' your $$$ back"... or would they?

any advice appreciated. and appreciate anyone who read this far! lol!

[MMMommy]

When your DS took the GT summer camp, do you recall if every student who took it was indeed in the GT program also? Even though it may put her enrollment in the camp at risk, I prob would want to clear it with the school and make sure she can still be in it. And chances are, they will let her still be in it anyways. Is there a space limit? Would keeping her in it bar others who are GT eligible from enrolling in the camp due to any space limitations?

[squimp]

Do they clearly explain the requirements for the GT classes on the website? In our district, we don’t have a pull out GT program but there are summer camps and activities that are open to kids in the GT pool who can be nominated by teacher and don’t have to be officially labeled as GT through testing. For these programs we did have to provide supporting documents.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

When your DS took the GT summer camp, do you recall if every student who took it was indeed in the GT program also?

good point - i have no idea, and not sure if i could ever find that out. i know DS has mentioned several friends who were in the summer camp with him who also go with him with to the pullout GT program. but i have no idea if all the students in it actually qualified for the program, or if there were some students who were like my DD and didn't qualify but had been doing the 1x a week pullouts. the website is fairly vague on it, calling it something like "summer program for gifted students"...doesn't explicitly say if they had to qualify or not.

my best guess now is that DD was allowed to register bc she was/is in the 1x a week pullout program with the GT specialist, and somehow that is considered "receiving GT services" and thus eligible to attend the GT summer camp..even though she ended up not qualifying. i am not sure what to call what DD is in now (1x a week pullouts), not sure if it is considered the GT program as the kids who actually "qualify" for GT get pulled out 2x a week (what my DS did last year), and are guaranteed to receive services for future grades.

ah, who know elementary school was so complicated?? LOL.

[bisous]

I would go with it. She was offered the classes, she qualifies for SOME GT services, they probably aren't full for GT kids for the summer program, it sounds convenient and she'll likely find it to be very enjoyable and educational, and you paid for them already! I think you're probably totally good though I suppose it might be good to double check.

[schrocat]

In our school district, the once a week pullout program is also considered GT, the half an hour pull out small group of 3-4 kids is also part of the GT program and the fulltime class with 99% kids is also GT. They just have different qualification criteria. I'm guessing that your daughter qualifies because she's already in a pull out group taught by the GT teacher.

[belovedgandp]

For summer programs, students didn't have to be officially receiving g/t services. A teacher recommendation was sufficient for those who had never formally tested.

If you've made summer plans around this, I'd just stick with it. Assuming she qualified based on the pull out is a fair assumption. But I tend to be one who seeks forgiveness over asking permission.

[Gracemom]

We are in Plano ISD. My son did not qualify for GT but did get invited to the GT summer camp based on high grades and class participation. When they sent home the summer camp form I called to confirm it wasn't a mistake.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

Thanks all! I emailed dd’s teacher and told her dd hadn’t qualified for Gt services but she was able to attend the summer program...she confirmed she had recommended dd for the gT summer program. Yay. So glad they will both be able to attend the same camp. Not only bc it’s a good program but it’s so convenient. DH will actually have the summer off which is nice, but still..so much easier when both kiddos are in same place. thanks everyone for replies and PM etc...love the BBB!

[MMMommy]

Thanks all! I emailed dd’s teacher and told her dd hadn’t qualified for Gt services but she was able to attend the summer program...she confirmed she had recommended dd for the gT summer program. Yay. So glad they will both be able to attend the same camp. Not only bc it’s a good program but it’s so convenient. DH will actually have the summer off which is nice, but still..so much easier when both kiddos are in same place. thanks everyone for replies and PM etc...love the BBB!

Great outcome! You can rest assured now that she was intended by her teacher to take the summer camp and feel good that you got this confirmation.