Hi Bam! I too can feel your frustration with the entire process of testing you have been through. I am also in FL so thought I would provide a little insight that I know from my school district. Our district just uses the DAS II for gifted testing. There is a short screening test that is used to determine if children should be allowed to even take the DAS II. In 2nd grade all children are given the Naglieri as a screening test. If they are recommended in a different year, I don't know what the screening test is called, but it takes less than 15 minutes. The DAS II takes about 1 1/2 - 2 hours to administer. My children were given the test in one sitting. If you look on the Florida Department of Education website, it has the requirements of gifted testing/notifications etc. There is a requirement that parents give permission for the testing. Once the results are obtained, the results are given in a group meeting with the gifted specialist, school psychologist, and teacher. The school must provide notice of this meeting in writing to parents. I can't believe that you just received a report sent home. I would certainly set an appointment with the school to go over results and see what suggestions they have.
The FCAT results are not necessarily correlated to IQ testing as they are testing material that the child should have learned during the grade they are in.
Our school district allows a child to be tested once per year for the gifted program and I believe this comes from the state policy on gifted testing. It certainly does not hurt to try again. The state also allows the use of outside testing. Each district must have a slightly different cut off though as ours is 130 for the gifted program. They do offer children who come from under-represented populations to qualify for the gifted program with a score of 120.
In our district once a child is in middle school the gifted program is quite different. My son takes advance classes in middle school but they are open to anyone depending on a child's FCAT scores and grades. The state also has the GEM math program, which allows them to take two HS honor classes while in middle school, but this too is just dependent on FCAT scores. He does not really receive any services from his being gifted in middle school nor are his classes just gifted children. I would certainly look into what the middle school would offer based on the "gifted" label before I pursued paying for outside testing.
Hope this helps.
