The Department of Education announced on their website that score notifications for applicants to elementary school gifted and talented programs would not be released today, as scheduled, but on Monday instead. Last year, the process was delayed repeatedly and students' placements were eventually delivered by a courier service. Parents who were closely watching the Department of Education website last night noticed that around 5 p.m. the timeline changed from May 1 notification to notification "shortly".
This morning, the following message appeared: "Gifted & Talented Final Update – May 1, 2009 - Score Reports and Applications (for eligible students) will be mailed to families by Monday, May 4, 2009. Thank you for your patience and understanding."
Amy Rabinowitz, whose daughter is on the waitlist for PS 290, said that the DOE has exhausted all of her patience and understanding. "I have been trying very hard to lay low and say that it will all work out," she said "but at this point I am convinced that it isn't going to work out. I am infuriated."
Rabinowitz had never been convinced that a gifted and talented placement was the best option for her child. She really liked PS 290 and had thought initially that if her daughter was offered a G&T placement then she would have a difficult decision to make. "Now, essentially, the G&T is backup for the local school," she said, "which is a mess."
She is hoping that even if her daughter doesn't score high enough for a gifted and talented program, the G&T placements will result in movement on the PS 290 waitlist. She is furious at the delay in releasing the scores. "To change the date at the end of the day that the schools are supposed to be posted?" she said. "It is like taking the knife and pushing if further in. I question how the Department of Education is going to be able to educate my daughter when there is such poor planning and poor organization."
Parents posting on the Insideschools forum are also finding their "patience and understanding" tested.
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