Rights of students and parents when teachers advise retention

I'm in Tucson Az. My 7th grade sons teachers want to retain him. I researched the effects if grade retention on kids his age and the results can be devistating ( Low self esteem, problems with the law, very high drop out rate). I gathered tthis information from a report by the US Dept Of Education. The study concluded that the cons far outweigh the pros of retention. What are our rights to fight this decision? My son is smart, but hes not very organized, and as boys can be, he's a bit lazy, Also at that age there are a lot of distractions in class (girls and friends and more girls...! I am confident that he has no learning disabilities, however, to stall for time I'm going to demand that the school test him anyway. I know one soloution(as suggested by the Dept of ED.) is to change schools. I can do that ,however we are a small district and they just moved some personel from his current middle school to the new school I want to switch to. See, the Principal of the new middle school used to be employed by the middle school that wants to retain him. (Its funny but the Principal of the new school asked if we lived in her area and was dissapointed that we didnt because she wanted my son to attend her school because he's a good kid!!)
Can the teachers from his current middle school tell the new middle school Principal of their decision to retain my son? Can the Principal of the new middle school decline my son admission because of information disclosed by his current teachers? Please help! The report by the Dept of Ed.says flat out, that it would not be in ANY childs best interest to retain them

You need to set up a meeting w/the administration and folks who are pushing this decision.

You need to present to them your arguments for why you think he should not be retained.

If you cannot come to some sort of agreement on this during this meeeting, you can that a hearing be convened by the administration on the issue. (See your school's handbook on the procedures for this.)

Keep in mind that the person assigned to hear it at this level will be someone in the school system, so this person will have his/her biases.

If that doesn't work, then you can go to mediation, civil court or due process. Which way you go depends on what they find out in the evaluation of your child -- whether he has special needs or not.

Best of luck to you.

Let us know if you have other questions.