I would agree, Willa. Identification is the very least that we as parents should expect. I think the problem with that is that once a child is identified, as anything, then the school system would have to have a plan in place for providing services.
I once sat in on a meeting between educational people and healthcare providers that was called because the new child psychiatrist at our hospital was diagnosing "so many kids" with autism. The school administration stated at the meeting that they were just not prepared to deal with all these kids with autism. The school superintendent himself said "You see, doctor, every time you diagnose a child with autism WE have to provide services." The doctor looked at the superintendent and asked "What do you want me to do? Stop properly diagnosing these children who have never received the appropriate services just because you haven't yet figured out how to serve them? You better figure it out because these kids aren't going away." Many in the room were shocked and it shut the school people up for sure!
And, amazingly, the local school district launched an initiative to develop an "autism team" to address all the kids that were being identified. Now, I know that it was driven by special ed laws, but wouldn't it be great if we could identify enough numbers of gifted kids that needed more challenge, so the school just couldn't ignore them anymore? They say there is power in numbers - maybe that's what we need.
