I would recommend appealing the decision. There is always a chance your district has so many kids scoring at this level that the reason your kiddo isn't included in the cutoff is simply lack of space. The 99% across the board is not common. Did you get a profile number? It would be 9 plus a letter. Here's is a quote from the Cogat site on the 9A profile, indicating the type of learning situation that kids with that profile would benefit from:
"When Grouping, Aim for Diversity. Very able students can benefit from group interactions when they are able to explain difficult concepts to other students, but they learn more when they are also able to participate as learners. This is unlikely to happen with any regularity when such students work only with their age mates in typical classrooms. Students become learners when other members of the group have equal or greater competence. Competence is primarily defined by the student's level of achievement in a domain. As one acquires higher levels of competence in any field, diversity in the range of perspectives represented in the group becomes more important for the acquisition of critical reasoning abilities than does diversity in ability. Thus, when grouping very able students with other students, try to devise groups in which the very able students will be learners--not just explainers--and in which there will be a diversity of perspectives among participants."
You can type in your child's profile here:
http://www.riverpub.com/products/group/cogat6/input.jspKeep in mind that achievement testing can appear lower in GT kids if they are not exposed to higher level materials.
ETA - Cogat is not an IQ test, but rather a predictor of giftedness. If you reach the 99th percentiles, I would say it's a pretty good indication of GT.
