Yikes what state are you in? Despite all my complaints about my local district, when we had both problems and I complained I had a SST within weeks. Both in 6th grade and high school.
If your son is failing in both math & LA then something needs to be done sooner than later. Can you get the phone number of the gifted specialist and give them a call?? Perhaps they will see him sooner if they knew. Is there someone at the district you can CALL?
I also wanted to ask what the curriculum/books are being used for math. Some of the new "common core" text books are simply awful.
The procedure we had to do was first have a SST (Student Study Team) a meeting with the teacher, principal, school psychologist, social worker, or whoever else seems appropriate. At that meeting suggestions were made and a second meeting was set 8 weeks later. Only after this happened would the school consider testing and a 504.
Good Luck.