A key to dealing with any school district is getting people and material other than "what the parents think" assembled for the school to consider. As a parent I have found that school try to value parent's perspectives, but that providing them with outside experts takes a lot of pressure off of them.
Another key is to have ready made solutions availible to the problems you are bringing to their attention.
Another key is to expect things to go slowly.
The more you can educate yourself on the nature of giftedness the better. My son,9, and I "discuss" the difference between "gifted" and "smart" from a kid's perspective:
Smart kids are good at school. They can get on a teacher's wavelength and answer test questions corectly and completely.
Gifted kids learn some subjects really fast and know alot and have a lot of ideas. Gifted kids see things from their own unique perspectives. Gifted kids might do well on tests or not. Sometimes gifted kids waste all their time looking for hidden meaning on easy questions. Gifted kids really like to learn new things and hate to spend time reviewing what they already know.
Best Wishes - Trinity
