Thanks for the additional info deacongirl.
Do you know what the school's requirement for FSIQ in order to trigger the achievement testing? I know that this sounds like it won't work, and it might not, but fwiw you may have some room to "push" (politely of course :)) and request that they schedule the achievement testing this spring.
One thing I was wondering though - was achievement testing included with your outside psych testing? Was any other testing included?
Are the meltdowns she's having at home or at school or both? It is really tricky at your dd's age to understand what triggers behavior such as meltdowns - it's possible that all the testing in the world might not reveal the answer to that question.. yet. What will be really helpful is that it's likely that over the next few years she'll mature in a way that will give her both a better self-understanding of what is triggering the meltdowns and she'll also be developing better expressive language skills which will help *you* understand better what's going on. She'll also, over time, be developing her own ways to cope that may look or be different than what she's doing now with the meltdowns.
One of my dd's has a lot *lot* of adoption-related trauma. She's also dyslexic, and when she was younger she had meltdowns that were just beyond impossible to deal with. Anxiety can be *very* tricky to understand and deal with - for instance, my dd will get very frustrated over certain types of school work that are very difficult for her, but if she gets upset *enough* (to a point where it's difficult for her to calm down), the adoption-related past trauma comes back into play and she gets really upset over that all over again which just re-fuels the already melting-down storm. My gut feeling is that perhaps what you need to consider is to proactively try to address the adoption issues (whether or not they are bothering her or she says they are bothering her) (this might not make sense - ask me to explain better if it doesn't!), and at the same time keep pursuing trying to figure out what is triggering the meltdowns. Try to get the ball rolling for the acceleration (if that's what's needed) at the very start of the school year, but don't over-worry if it's just not doable. For my kids at least, sometimes what mattered most (first) was having a parent understand what was up (even if the child hadn't been able to figure it out for themselves first)... then know that their parent was doing their best to help them. If you find out she's PG and she's still not skipped at the beginning of the next school year, having an explanation for her of why school was frustrating and letting her know you're doing everything you can to make changes to help will potentially help her a lot to cope until the changes take place.
One other thought - if you can't get the achievement testing through the school and the psych hasn't already done achievement testing, can you find an affordable way to get the achievement testing outside of school? We were able to get testing through a contact made through friends who homeschool.
Honestly, I think sometimes we put all our eggs into believing that the issue is school, when really we need to focus on what is triggering behaviors in our child and look at it from what I can't think of anyway to describe other than a "whole life" perspective. There may be a lot you can do over the summer to better understand what's going on with your dd just at home. You'll have what sounds like it will be a comprehensive professional report in your hands mid-May. You may not be able to make a skip happen by the end of this school year, but you have a ton of potential progress that you are making and will continue to make in understanding your child. It will be ok - hang in there
Best wishes,
polarbear
