Ours is a large public school with about 120 kids per grade, and it's in a school district where 95% of the kids are on or above grade level. So, they are used to kids coming in at a high level of readiness. And they are used to parents worrying about their kids being too advanced for K.

If your school is like this, you may have to get beyond the first line of people in order to actually be heard. Be specific about levels and how you know the level. And if you know their language, use it. For example, our dd was reading at an L level by their standards. We don't get teacher assignments until the day before school, so we can't contact the teacher. We contacted the principal and as soon as we said the level, we got attention. She read for a teacher who said, "Yes, she can do L" and they decided she should skip K. Yes, they decided on a grade skip based on that alone, and no we weren't comfortable. But that's another story, unrelated to your questions.

I think our story is specific only to our district because of it's size and demographics and the options available (no gifted schools at all, and no gifted services til 3rd grade). There seems to be a lot of variability in how it goes down, depending on where you are and what the school culture is. There isn't one right answer. Just listen, state your needs, listen some more, state your needs again..... You can't know how your child will fit in until you are there, and neither can they, so if they can them to meet her, you are already a step further along.
Whatever you do, be assertive and clear in your communication. Not wondering if dd will do OK. You know she's different (not better) and you are worried she may not do well. Everyone wants your dd (and all the kids) to succeed in school and to enjoy the experience. Work as a team.

Cathy and Master Of None, thank you so much for your additional advice.

Master Of None, unfortunately I am not familiar with their terms. I'm trying to track everything she is doing, but she reads so much I can't keep up! I've just been using grade level equivalents from Scholastic's book wizard. I appreciate your advice on how to approach the teacher. I do have a tendency to be either too wishy washy or too unyielding depending on how annoyed I am. I can't believe they recommended a grade skip based on only your DD reading one book, LOL!

On a side note, I received our welcome packet for kindergarten today and they had a sheet on preparing your child for K. It talked about teaching them their letters outside of the sequence of the alphabet song, teaching colors and doing basic counting when climbing stairs! All I could think was Oh. My. God. And my daughter was telling me "I *love* fractions" today at bedtime as she grabbed a book on them for bedtime reading. At this point I have no idea what to expect...

Well, you can see that there can be very little opportunity for your child to show what she knows and is capable of unless you can get them to pay attention and actually test her.

DS' K teacher didn't realize he could read because there was just no chance for him to show her. She had no idea he was doing 2nd grade math at age 4. In K, they were still counting and sorting and identifying shapes. Several kids in his class didn't even speak English...

Yes! I can totally see that a teacher might not even have opportunity to notice. We ran into that to a lesser extent with preschool. Our first parent-teacher conference 2 years ago went along these lines: the teacher said happily "your daughter can count to ten and knows the letters 's', 'm', 't', 'd' and 'a' (or whatever the first 5 letters taught by montessori classes are)". And I responded "Um, she is reading 3 letter words and can count to a hundred". To which I heard "she shouldn't be reading so soon. She needs to go through all the steps first to learn." Ha ha! How am I supposed to stop her, even assuming I would want to? Fortunately we had a more understanding teacher last year, though she was still teaching my DD far behind where she actually was.

I can't believe that there were kids in your DS's class that didn't even speak English! God, how could the teacher even get all the kids doing the right thing at the right time if they don't understand him or her? I'm really still having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that they are teaching basic numbers, colors and shapes...

I'm trying to stop stressing about this ('trying' being the operative word) and console myself that if K doesn't work out at this school, we can always homeschool. We could even homeschool outside of school and she could still go and socialize...

My in-laws are coming to visit next month, and while they are here my DH and I are going to go visit all the gifted schooling options in our area. We can get a better picture of what is available and once school starts we can see how good a fit it is compared to the available options. Hopefully something will be great!

My DS9 had the same experience. He went into pre-K reading and when I told his teacher, she looked at me like I was speaking Martian to her. So, no help with reading that whole year. Kindergarten was better (the K teacher was more open-minded). But they still had him on low-level SRA cards. There was some rule about having to master the previous level before moving to the next one. Jumping into the middle wasn't allowed for some reason.

Val

We have the same issue with DS5. I have decided to gather up what he has done and doing now and put them aside, and when his teacher is chosen, I will talk to her about his abilities and make sure to keep the communication open. I get the "he needs to get ready for school" response when I even think about mentioning him skipping K, as if he isn't already in a school setting. Anyway, keep the lines of communication open, and start with the teacher. If you need to move up the ladder then do so when you can't get any further with the first rung. I agree with Cathy A, wording the questions differently will help tremendously when discussing where your child is and where she should be.

Good luck! It seems there will be quite a few of us discussing kindergarten this year.