I grew up in a fantastic program in Renton, WA that has since been gutted. We have two gifted boys and can relocate anywhere in the US, and it's really hard to find aggregate data about where there are high-quality gifted programs (we specifically prefer dedicated gifted classrooms).
Our other criteria is preparing for climate change, so we're not interested in any place too far south. Oregon? Washington? The Great Lakes Region? New England?
We would welcome recommendations of great schools and programs, anywhere, but especially places that won't be too warm in 20-30 years.
This is a pretty open-ended question, as the answer depends substantially on the needs of your children, and the stage of education. (E.g., if you were still in Renton, you would already be in reasonable commuting distance of one of the few true early college programs for HG youth in the country, namely, full-time programming for middle through high school-age students at the Robinson Center at UW-Seattle.)
And as you'll find from the experiences of other parents of GT learners, the optimal solution for your children is a constantly shifting target. It might be more helpful to think a bit about your overall family values (sounds like you already have made a good start on this), including your principal goals for parenting, of which education is a subset. For example, among our core goals for our children during their years of formal education are that they should be healthy, happy, whole humans, growing at their own pace not only intellectually, but in compassion for themselves and others.
Sometimes this has meant academic acceleration of various kinds, while at others it has been best achieved by letting academic challenge take a back burner while developing other aspects of them (e.g, social, emotional, executive functions, artistic/creative talents) took the forefront.
As you probably already have experienced, it takes flexibility and willingness to try unconventional solutions to keep up with their needs. Depending on your children/family needs and situation, you could also consider some combination of home/online schooling, and then make your relocation decision based more on other considerations.
That is a good point. It's worth looking at the full range of options all the way out to college, as quite a few states offer various levels of free or subsidized dual enrollment community college or 4y university courses.
A few organizations are active in promoting DE/EC, such as:
And many of the states that have a well-structured DE program run and accredit their own programs, often with automatic acceptance of DE credits 1:1 at state universities. You can check with the state DOE and BHE (Board of Higher Ed) for that info. E.g., Washington () Michigan (https://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,4615,7-140-81351_40085---,00.html) (EC is linked from that page) Massachusetts (https://www.mass.edu/strategic/earlycollege.asp) (DE is elsewhere on the same site)
Have you considered the Northshore School District (Woodinville/Bothell)? We are not in Northshore, we're a bit outside, but I'm continually impressed with the organization and willingness to make leaps in Northshore. We know several families with very gifted kids who like the NSD program quite a bit. I've heard their parent partnership/part homeschooling program also has a lot of gifted kids involved.
I would honestly be hesitant to move very far for a gifted program, especially right now. The pandemic is going to mean very hard times for schools, and I expect there will be a lot of budget cutting going on. That seems likely to be bad news for programs like gifted.
Since I've never lived in the US, I can't answer your primary question, but you've described expectations of climate change which will partially inform your decision on where you'll live and climate change may not necessarily manifest as uniform global warming. The thermohaline circulation currently acts as a giant engine bringing warm ocean currents to North America & Europe. I have long harboured concerns that the dual climate change potential impacts of thermohaline slowing and weakening of the polar vortex jet stream might cause paradoxical colder weather in these countries (where members of my extended family reside), even as other places are roasted by climbing temperatures.