Thanks again for the replies. They are all so helpful. I will take the time to respond to them individually soon.
I ran into another issue with the process today and wanted some perspective.
I hadn't shared any information about the call with the gifted specialist with my son. I mentioned the loss of his dad and his emotions. His dad's birthday would be this weekend. And the holidays are imminent. Telling him the committee's decision could wait.
But my son came home today and told me he'd been thinking about his gifted test results. When I asked why, he said a fellow student in his reading class said "everyone failed the gifted test." I told him he knew he didn't fail the test and that it wasn't that student's concern. And I asked what else the student said. And he told me the other student said the gifted teacher told them that (everyone failed) in their last gifted session (which would have been yesterday, I think). Yes, the student who shared the news (with the entire class) is in the gifted program.
I am not pleased. I feel like my son's rights to privacy of his educational records have been violated. I am not sure what was said in the gifted session. But if anything needed to be communicated, I know it could have been said in a way that didn't get brought back to the classroom.
And I did specifically request in email that the gifted specialist not send any written notices via my son. I told her I would arrange to pick them up so that I could handle telling him at the right time, in the right way.
But I had to tell him because of what happened at school. The good news is he was OK with it. I think he felt better knowing that he wasn't rejected outright and liked the idea of doing a special project.
Should I do something about this?
Right now, they're violating state regulations by non having an up-to-date gifted plan on their website. And they're violating state regulations by telling third-parties about my son's engagement in programming without even sending me a written notice. And then there's the 10 calendar day vs. 10 instructional day for an appeal issue. And if they argue that the plan on the website is old, well they can't.
And, yes, there could be timeline issues. From what I understand, they could find a way out of August starting the timeline. Referrals are supposed to include a description of why the eval is requested and what has been done to address that. I didn't include that. I requested the eval and was told the new administrator would follow up "in a few days." The administrator claims the other party said I would be contacting him to start the process.
But, the regulations say that the school-based team must make a decision on whether or not to evaluate within 10 business days. They didn't. I did sign a form giving them permission to evaluate, but they are calling it "observation." It's not testing. They'll come back in January and decide whether to evaluate.
They have 65 business days from the referral date to determine if a child needs services. I am starting to feel that their "observation" approach is an attempt to stretch the timeline.
So where do I go from here?
