So you have seen school districts back down from their own policies? I think that my husband and I are concerned about coming across as "pushy parents".
It's not so much "backing down" as it is having to acknowledge the validity of the results on widely-recognized tests such as WISC. Our ds is one of the children here who did not perform anywhere near the range on the CogAT when tested for the gifted program at school than he did on WISC etc that had been administered privately. I also dislike being perceived as a "pushy" parent, and pushy really isn't in my nature. What I did in advocating for my ds was to focus on data (I'm a scientist)... so I tried to just put together the info as I would look at data in a report - look at the facts, look at what backs up the facts, and take the emotion out of it. In my ds' case, I started with my request for gifted services by showing the school his outside testing. They wanted to do their own testing, which was the CogAT. When the school said my ds' score on the CogAT wasn't high enough to qualify, I once again showed them the WISC and other outside tests that we had, and asked them "are you questioning the WISC results?" If they insisted they needed to do their own testing I asked them "Are you questioning the results found by a respected professional psychologist?" I can't remember if your dd's other testing was done by the school or a private psych, but if it was done by the school you can still ask if the school is questioning your dd's results. I have also known other parents here who've had similar issues who would put the question back to the school as "Are you saying it's possible to be gifted only in certain circumstances or on certain days?" When our school staff replied that "It's school district policy" I just replied back "He's tested at (xxx) on a nationally recognized test that is widely acknowledged to be a good measure of ability, more so than test x which tests (fill in the blank). Are you saying he doesn't belong in the gifted program?"
I suspect from what you've written about your school you'll have to stand firm and advocate advocate advocate for your dd, but know that it is most likely something you *can* do successfully. I know that once I started networking with other parents where I live, I found that many (if not most) of the students in our elementary gifted program landed there because their parents advocated them into it. I also found that in working with school staff, a little "push" from parents was expected and not perceived to be overly pushy. My gauge of "pushy" was much more sensitive than most school personnel's idea of "pushy".
Hang in there!
polarbear
