Hey LynnW..."I wonder, have any of you tried to form a local advocacy group?"...
That would be a yes on my end. I was having a really difficult time trying to advocate for my pre-K son (last year) out of concern of the lack of gifted services for kids in early childhood. I was also really amazed to find there is no gifted elementary school or even a private school choice in our area...the county offers the standard one day a week for 3 hour pull out class (which to this day, still does not make sense to me....gifted kids are gifted 24/7 not for 3 hours, one day a week)...anyways...I was very frustrated and tried reaching out to some local families through a few different avenues to the point that I found another gifted advocate in the area that really knew a lot of info and had been trying to advocate in our county for years....I kept asking about starting up a support group for parents in our area and finally got some parents to one meeting...everyone seemed to have the same questions and same gripes but when it came time to try to figure out good times to meet, no one could compromise or one time/date was good for some and not for others...we managed to pull off a 2nd meeting and then it fizzled out to nothing....so, I found an amazing group 2 hours away, that really worked hard to start up their support group and I thoroughly enjoy driving to their meetings and get togethers and have been able to share and take part in some really great sessions with other parents.
