We are in PA and we had our older two IDed as gifted. We did not bother with our youngest (now 13, 8th grade).
While I did not go over your entire timeline, the process was long. You'd fill out paperwork, return to the school district, get more paperwork that looked almost identical, fill out, return... Every time paperwork was with the district, they took as long as was permitted by law to process/respond. After all of that (which was months and months), they did some "pre-testing" and claimed the kids would never make the cut on the IQ test so you should stop the process to avoid getting the kid upset.
You pressed on, the district gave an IQ test of their choosing, administered by someone familiar with special ed students (not gifted kids), and finally the meeting was scheduled. All of this took the better part of a school year. We did this when our kids were in 7th grade.
I would not advise taking this to a higher level. This was the least of our struggles with the district admin folks. In our district, the biggest battles were in high school.
Without giving away your location, can you give us an idea of what part of PA we're talking about?
