Tracy, I'm not very familiar with the current situation in Washington state, but I can shed some light on general trends and state policy in all three Pacific coast states.
Washington-- seems to have pretty good state policies in place; I've known two children who were granted early K entry and one of those children was grade-skipped an additional year without any issues. Both of those children live in the Seattle metro area, however, where there are large magnet schools.
Oregon-- outside of the Portland Metro area, you're looking at private options. The state mandates "identification" all right. But that doesn't mean that it funds it-- or that whatever a district decides to call "GT" actually follows any kind of best-practices even for MG children. Mostly it's fluff and a parent-driven festival of cliques that serve to exclude those beyond the velvet rope. In other words, in a small town, most PG children are going to be homeschooled. Period. We're persona non grata with the "gifted" crowd in our own town. More on that momentarily.
California-- if anything, the budgetary problems in OR (not insubstantial, btw) are far, far worse in CA. The GT programming in many districts has been on the chopping block as a result. Grade skipping I've heard about, but it isn't always done ungrudgingly, nor in good faith, quite frankly. If you're in one of the HUGE population centers (LA basin, SF bay) there are very good magnet schools, and if you're outside of them, there... aren't.
I'm not sure that there is a culture of support for GT in public education out here, much as it pains me to say that. There's definitely a hefty streak of anti-elitism in the educational powers-that-be in the Northwest. Even many program directors in GT camps and independent programming truly "don't believe in" differences based in LOG... or that PG kids are very different from those who are borderline 'gifted'/bright.
There are islands of good GT accommodation. But in between them is basically a wasteland-- only the administrators and parents THINK that there is 'real GT' in those places. Because, see, that's what the label says...
My perspective here is that I have a 13yo PG dd and we live in a smallish city with a major university and a large high-tech employer. Fully 56% of our county possesses a bachelor's degree or more... and yet the GT programming here is still absolutely awful from our perspective. OTHER parents consider it 'good' and quite rigorous in terms of cutoffs. We don't. granted that the district probably skews high in terms of ability, but, um... 30% of our local school is identified as "GT?" HUH?? Uhhhh... NO. No wonder they never even bothered testing my kid before identifying her. They don't break things out any further than that, and there isn't any real programming (oh, no, of course not... "all coursework is differentiated by teachers"), so there isn't much point. The thing is, MOST parents in our town want the label in order to gain social standing. They very definitely don't want any whiff that their own (bright) children aren't the real thing... and unfortunately, DD is proof positive that PG kids exist. In some ways, even school administrators don't like her-- because of what she represents, if that makes sense. She makes them face the fact that they are identifying kids that don't HAVE any particular special educational needs, caving in to parent pressure, and at the same time, ignoring the real thing (like my DD), and even watering down what little borderline appropriate instruction they offer so as to make it 'easy enough' on kids that are bright but should probably never have been placed in GT classes. If I sound a little bitter, it's because I am. We have "excellent" neighborhood schools. My 12 yo was advised last fall to strongly consider going "straight to the community college or local uni" since our local high school (reputedly one of the fifteen best in the state, and a regular source of national merit scholars) had "almost nothing to offer her that she hasn't yet taken." Seriously??
If we wanted to, we could probably drive ~80 mi each way to Portland's one, fabled STEM/gifted magnet high school, which I know very little about. I do know that I have a family member in a western Portland suburb with two HG+ kiddos (I think their plan was to apply to DYS) and they tried K12 for a while but eventually even gave that up as a lost cause and went to homeschooling. There is a small group of high-ability homeschoolers in the Portland metro area, which they've found to be a delight (EPGY and socializing with like-minded kids-- YAY!). At least half of that group is DYS, from what my relative tells me.
Now, that is all regarding PUBLIC schools here. Private schools are an entirely different kettle of fish. There are (that I know of) two excellent boarding schools, and a fair number of excellent private dayschools in a variety of locations. The problem for us is the expense, frankly. If money is no object, there are opportunities there, no doubt.
With a PG kiddo, I'd stay away from small towns in the Northwest or California unless you plan to homeschool or can pursue private schooling.
Another factor to consider is that there are FAR fewer colleges and universities out here.
If I make it sound bleak, that's not really my intention. It's not the the schools here are bad. They aren't (clearly); see my note about our local high school, which is known for it's high-achieving students. It's just that it's far from ideal for HG+ students. We love living where we do, and thus far, that trade has been well worth it, in our estimation.
