our school did "gifted" testing at the end of second grade, but that's all they give us, a "pass" to the GATE program if you score high enough...
where I live, the way it works is that you request, in writing, a formal IEP evaluation, which includes the school psychologist assessing the situation. In our case, they denied us LD testing because DD's academic scores (grades, state testing and gifted testing) are on the positive side. That alone irritates me, to say the least. It is MORE than possible for a kid to be gifted with a disability, and in my DD's case, they keep SAYING how she's not cooperating, etc. I would think the GAP between academics and conduct would indicate a deeper problem, but...and we just had a second SST (this is a conference with teacher, psychologist, counselor) to see if they should write a formal IEP (also denied). EVERY YEAR I have gotten multiple calls about my DD, complaints about her refusal to do work, etc. The point of all that is to say "You get what you pay for".
So far, the school refuses to test further. The ped wanted to push ADHD drugs on us, even though DD doesn't meet all the criteria...we are literally at the end of our rope!
We have chosen to take her to a private psychologist, and hang the cost. We will likely have to pay for the whole thing out of pocket, but this is a dr that specializes in gifteds and the school wants us to take her to a counselor anyway...additionally, in our case, I feel like we are paying someone to help advocate and support us. She also has considerable experience helping families navigate the special gifted programs and talent searches and used to be an advisor to our District's GATE program.
We were told they could not test twice in the same year and I don't have any more time to waste, so we are done messing around and are going to a real professional!
