I'd add one thing to aeh's excellent advice - the CogAT is usually timed; you will probably want to ask for extended time (or untimed) due to the issue with processing speed. You can also asked that it be administered one-on-one rather than in a group setting.

The other thing I'd add is - you are going to most likely have to take the CogAT if the district is refusing to look at the private test scores - we've been in a *very* similar situation (without moving lol!), where our ds in early elementary had private testing that was well above cut-off limits for gifted entry, but scored lower than the required bar on the CogAT, and also didn't have a teacher who felt she knew him well enough to fill out the creativity/motivation/etc questionnaire. I don't know if any of this will help, but here are a few pointers from our experience:

1) Don't be afraid to appeal if/when the school tells you "no", your child doesn't qualify. Keep on advocating, not screaming, but advocating forcefully in a kind way, if that makes sense. You *have* proof of intelligence in the outside testing. The school staff may insist that your child can't qualify because of a CogAT score, but in return you simply keep responding - yes, BUT, and then remind them of the private test scores.

2) Ask them why they think a child who scored so high on the WISC didn't score in the same range on the CogAT. They won't have an answer. Jump in and let them know what you suspect is the reason (ADHD or whatever). Conversations like this don't usually automatically get your child magically automatically placed into the program, but they make it clear that you are thinking this through and you aren't going to disappear into a dark corner and go away and just forget about it all. And it *might* get the school staff to thinking a little bit outside the box.

2) Put all your conversations with staff in writing. If you have a meeting, after the meeting write out your understanding of what was discussed and decided upon at the meeting and emial it back to everyone who was there. Do the same for one-on-one conversations with teachers etc. This can be done nicely and politely - you can always thank the teacher/whoever for meeting with you etc, and then recap the conversation, and ask if there is anything you've misunderstood.

3) Pay attention to who is telling you no. You start with the immediate school staff who are responsible with testing etc - but if you run into the situation of being told "NO gifted program admission" due to CogAT and that's that - talk to the district gifted supervisor, or whoever is next in line in charge of the gifted programming. Eventually you are going to find someone in the district's gifted program staffing who is going to recognize that a test such as the WISC, administered individually, is going to usually give a much more realistic assessment of a student's true abilities than a learned-ability test such as the CogAT administered in a group setting.

4) Don't assume that all the kids in the gifted program got in through group CogAT testing. Don't assume you are the only parent that ever advocated hoping to get their child into the program without qualifying CogAT scores.

5) From what other parents have told me - and this is just in my district, I have no experience anywhere else and I'm not an authority on anything - but it might be worth considering lol! - in early elementary our gifted program had a combo of kids who qualified because they obviously *looked* gifted to teachers, another cohort of kids who's parents requested they be tested, and a third (and significantly high number) group of kids who qualified through *IEP* testing, which is not CogAT - it's an individually administered IQ test (WJ-III Cog in our district). They were kids who don't look gifted and were having so much difficulty functioning in the regular classroom that they were referred for evaluations for IEPs for behavior etc issues, and suddenly it was discovered that they were, in fact, incredibly smart. In your case, one thing to consider might be the ADHD - you don't have any 504 or IEP in place right now, but you can request one if you think your children need one - and I suspect you might at least need 504 accommodations. If you make a written request for an evaluation based on concerns about the impact of ADHD in the classroom, and if the full team agrees to evaluate, you'll be able to get at the very least an individually-administered IQ test that is run *through* your school district and therefore should carry some weight. You can also attempt at least to advocate for gifted programming or differentiated classroom work through the IEP eligibility process.

I hope that makes sense! Good luck to you as you advocate!

polarbear