Adrienne, I'm not going to lie. It's been a tough road and I'm a certified teacher with lots of experience and understanding of the system. I just keep remembering the saying, "How do you eat an elephant?". Answer - one bite at a time.
So I take one issue a year as my "battle to the end" issue. Once I get that, I celebrate my success and let that issue go for the year with as minimum questioning of their techniques as possible. So if they let yours into the 5th grade class that is a huge success!
Once I get my success, I start researching for my next years question. Maybe next year you want to tweek what they are doing with the acceleration or add 1/2 and hour of organization time. Either way you have to speak their language to get what you want.
Suggestions to get started... I keep a binder with each years information in it. For example, under 1st grade I have all my notes for the meeting, a summary of their responses. I have samples of what he's doing at home & school, test scores, EPGY levels, relevant notes from state laws and books on gifted education.
Since your state is mandated you can go to your states board of education site. I did a quick search and you may start with this bulletin
http://wvde.state.wv.us/policies/p2419.doc It's a 139 page document outlining policy for exceptional students in your state. This seems to be the policy page in general
http://wvde.state.wv.us/policies/ Remember many states have at least a dozen different policy documents that cover gifted.
I just ended up reading all the policies on everything. Not the most efficent method and at least I knew I didn't miss anything.
Then after reading the state laws, I went to my district regulations. I question anything I don't understand via email to the head of the department of gifted educaiton. Document, document, document. Then I ask for what I want the next year and qoute the responses they have given me and the actual policy that applys. I'm finding their answers and policy are totally different. It's just that no one ever takes the time to read all the info and fight for what they want.
You can do it one bite at a time! Hope the document links above help
