Reply to Yet another teacher has left BASIS and parents are in the dark

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't think people understand Basis where it comes to acceleration.  Nobody is being forced to be accelerated at Basis.  Acceleration, i.e. things like placement into Algebra I in 5th or 6th grade, or into the LEAP program, is offered as a function of diagnostic exams to place students at a level appropriate to their mastery, but is only done at the discretion and by the choice of the families.  If the diagnostic says they are ready for Algebra I in 5th grade, that doesn't mean they have to do it.  They could also follow the regular course sequence as well and take Algebra I in 7th grade.  And, if a student did try jumping ahead into the accelerated track, they could always drop back to the regular sequence if it's too much to take on.

Also, there are probably thousands of public schools in districts all over the country which are STEM focused and which have acceleration and similar types of features - what Basis does is really not all that new or unusual.  As such, I seriously doubt that IDEA precludes this in public schools.

I'm no attorney but in my reading of materials around IDEA, I noted that one of the clear provisions of IDEA is that FAPE [i]requires that the quality of educational services provided to students with disabilities be equal to those provided to non-disabled students[/i] - so, if a family's intention is serious modification to the student's coursework to downgrade it to a level they feel is appropriate to the student's capability, then I would think the family's own expectation of the curriculum and workload is in fact no longer of equivalent quality as compared to what the other students are doing, would go against IDEA's stated definition of FAPE.  As such, any desired modifications asked of a school really can't downgrade the curriculum and expectations without violating IDEA as well.  If the school is expecting the student to meet an equivalent level of rigor as the rest of the students, then they are actually upholding IDEA and definitional FAPE requirement of equality to other students.[/quote]
What they said.[/quote]

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