The Teacher's Resource Depot

Question:
I was talking to a good friend of mine yesterday. He has two young boys, twins aged 4 years old in September. These two boys are amazingly intelligent. Their father was telling me about their online blog (I don’t have one of thsoe, and neither does he!), their use of the computer to read and write stories, poems, journal entries, play games, and many other things. These boys both tested at a 2nd grade level 2 years ago (at age 2!) and are now testing at a 4th to 5th grade level, thanks mostly to the amazing work that their mother does with them at home. They are currently in a preschool program for children with special needs because they did not start talking until they were 3 years old, but they speak in signs fluently. The reason they did not speak until they were three is because of a physical deformity in both the boys’ vocal cords (most people’s vocal boxes are shaped like a U, but their vocal boxes are shaped like a V [this is what their father told me]), so it’s not a lack of communicative skills, a lack of intelligence, or a lack of trying that has caused hem to devolop late vocal skills. It is a lack of physical ability. The school district they live in wants to delay the twins from attending Kindergarten until they have better vocal skills. Not because they aren’t devolopmentally ready, but because their body is not ready! I asked their father how this is any different from denying a child from entering school because they can’t walk or are deaf or blind. He agrees that it is ridiuclous that the school district wants to hold them back, but doesn’t know what to do to enforce their attendance of Kindergarten this coming fall. It is my belif that any delay in their school would lead to a delay in their educational ability, that they may lose some skills that they have gained, that they will slow down in their progress (in two years, they gained almost 3 grade levels in ability, and delaying their education may dealy that progress).

It is my belief that these two boys should be in special education, but not for the developmentally -delayed- but for the Gifted and Talented, perhaps even be tested for special classes for children who show genius possibility. However, the boys’ school wants to keep them back, and says they don’t have a teacher that can work with them…they don’t want to teach them sign language because they are not deaf, but they don’t have a special program for non-vocal gifted children. The school says that they cannot go in the ‘regular’ GT program because they do not talk well enough to be understood (both boys have trouble with multi-syllable words or long sentences, because the amount of air it takes to push words out takes a lot more energy and effort out of them then a normal vocal box would allow, so t hey tire easily).

I am shocked and upset that their school district is not willing to work with these two very smart, very wonderful little boys to give them the very best education, and so my question is: What can the parents of these little boys do to force the school to allow the children into a gifted program, whether their vocal skills get better by then or not (btw, the doctor says that with practice and effort, the children’s vocal boxes will become a normal shape, and they will have no further trouble with their speech when the shape rights itself).

Advice? Help? If it helps, the boys live in Chesapeake, Virginia. They will be 4 years old in September, and yes, they are seeing a speech therapist (which is why they are speaking at all now, because of practice and therapy to improve muscle strength and try to push their vocal boxes into a U shape). And the cause of the mis-shapen vocal boxes was prematurity (not sure how premature they were, but that is the only lasting disability they have from their prematurity)