I wrote in my COSA request that we were not picky about what different school we were willing to go to- anything but the current one. The woman gathering info who called me to review my request said that was helpful, but in the end, it didn't end make a difference obviously. At kindergarten orientation, I saw a paper on the table with a list of names, that said COSA at the top. Next to each name said Denied or Approved. About 1/3 of them said approved. I'm guessing it was because of daycare situations, since it was early on for any of them to go through appeals for bullying or special needs. I mailed my appeal to the State Board the other day. I heard that it takes a long time to hear back. I'm not very hopeful, but at least I can say that I did everything I could.

I wonder if some of the denials are based on the school you want to transfer to. I would guess that if a school is already overcrowded that they would look at a COSA request with more scrutiny. If you want to transfer to a school that is under utilized - perhaps they would be more likely to approve it.

Anonymous wrote:I know someone who, as far as I can tell, put a flimsy report of bullying in, one that could have easily been remedied by just moving classrooms, and got it accepted! Was totally ridiculous and makes a mockery of the whole process.

This was 2 months ago.

Sharing past experiences of COSAs is not going to be very helpful--clearly something is VERY different this year. Not one person has posted here saying their COSA was approved this year even with serious issues relating to bullying or special needs, yet on other threads many people have given examples of COSA approvals based on child care needs or parents' work locations.

I posted earlier about my experience, and the principal assured me we would be approved based on his own past experience. He told me there were 15 students at the school on COSAs already (not incoming kindergartners, though), and he had "given away" another 15 to other schools. They seem quite common. Other threads I have read suggested that overcrowding/enrollment usually affected results more than actual details of the hardship. Something is up with this year.

I know someone who, as far as I can tell, put a flimsy report of bullying in, one that could have easily been remedied by just moving classrooms, and got it accepted! Was totally ridiculous and makes a mockery of the whole process.

We have two families with a COSA to a different school based on past bad experiences with the principal and a teacher.

I know someone who has a COSA to our school and I think she got it last year. It had to do with her work location being closer to the school. So I know someone got one last year. I wonder if anyone got one this year.

It has become quite ridiculous this year. I understand that they want to prevent people from abusing the system, but I've heard of several people who have REALLY legitimate reasons will strong documentation to support their request and they are getting denied.

It costs the County the same amount to educate an individual student wherever they are in the County! Are we NOT about what is best for students?! I'm not a Josh Starr basher and I'm not even sure if this is where the change is coming from, but he is the one main variable that has changed.

Our cosa was because of bullying and even racism from other students targeting my child. We even provided police reports. Denied 3 times.

(The special needs kids and the advanced kids are not necessarily mutually exclusive categories. Just saying.)

Star is not well liked by parents with advanced kids either.

The change is from the central office. Starr has an adversarial relationship with the special needs community.

I turned mine in as soon as they were being accepted. It was denied. I appealed it, and it was denied on the next step up. I appealed it again for school board review, and by phone I was told it was denied again when I called to inquire. They told me that the paperwork would be mailed the last week of May with instructions on how to appeal at the state level. I received the letter of recommendation from the superintendent for the board- he fully outlined well my unique hardship and sounded like he was on board, but then still recommended I be denied. I'm thinking its useless. If the state approves it, then they'll have to say that the school board was wrong. If the school board approved it, then they'd be saying that the guy before them was wrong. .. If that guy had approved me, then he would have been going against the recommendation of the initial request. Maybe its all politics. I'm stumped about what I can say in my letter to the state different than what I've already said, but I feel like I have to keep trying.

Something is definitely different this year--maybe someone new in charge? My son has been in PEP at one school for two years, and has documented anxiety issues. His teachers AND principal advised me to apply for the COSA so he could attend the same school for kindergarten. All seemed fairly confident that his case was legitimate, and that with the principal's blessing there would be no problem. Except it was denied :\ The principal seemd genuinely surprised and wrote a letter for our appeal. We also added letters from his teachers and pediatrician since it's not a convenience issue, but rather a matter of his mental health. Still waiting for a response...

It used to be that an appeal was almost automatic...even without additional information. That is clearly not the case this year.