We moved back to MA from NYC last March; I'm from MA. We initially moved west of Boston before moving again in Dec and enrolling our son (5 1/2) in a gifted school on the North Shore.

I had towns such as Arlington, Newton, Winchester, Lexington, Concord, Belmont, Lincoln and others under consideration - all of which have highly esteemed public school systems. However, these towns are expensive; and I soon discovered that my son was eg/pg and the public schools would not be able to accommodate him. If you have a mg/hg, you might be ok in Lexington and the other towns listed. I'm not familiar with Quincy's school system, except I know it's not as highly regarded as any of the public school systems west of Boston.

From what I understand, Brookline's program is a pull-out situation for a couple of hours a day or week. Brookline is an expensive community and this may not be an option as a result.

Cambridge schools operate on a lottery basis. If you live across the street from a school, it does not necessarily mean your child will attend. I've heard mixed things about the Cambridge schools. You might want to post a question on http://www.city-data.com/forum/massachusetts/ to get more details about Cambridge.

MA has some excellent school districts, but much of the challenging course work is aimed at the high school age. There's not much for kindergarten and elementary grade in terms of giftedness in the public school system. It can vary widely from school district and within a school from year to year with teachers. In fact, you may potentially face open resentment and hostility with the term giftedness, especially with kindergarten if you mention it; that's what happened with me.

There is a new, private gifted school (Anova) which opened in Melrose and you might want to consider. Melrose is also supposed to be offering a full gifted program this year or next, partly to counter Anova and exodus to the Mystic Valley Charter Schools (which is supposed to be good).

I spoke to a parent in Watertown last summer who was able to grade skip their kindergarten student, but I am not sure if this was a system-wide process or an individual one based on the k's test scores, which the parents got privately.

I would say that you might want to play the school situation by ear and see what happens. A lot is going to depend on the child, the school setting, and how quickly he learns. If he's fine with 24 kids in a mix pre-k/k situation now, you might be ok next year with the public schools in MA.