Mk, I don't want to be discouraging, but it's really hard to get differentiation in half-day K. The teachers are trying really hard to bring everyone up to a baseline of competence before first grade, and teach being-in-school behaviors like listening, waiting your turn, and walking nicely in line. The being in school behaviors will be extremely useful for your DS, and totally worth doing IMO, but it is extremely rare for a kindergarten teacher to be able to differentiate instruction in academics.

We found it useful to think about those early grades as DS's alternative curriculum; everyone else was learning to read and write and do math, which he already had in spades. What he did not have was self-management, grasp of school routines, play skills, friendship skills, sitting still and attending at circle time, coping with the unexpected schedule changes, and self-calming strategies. We invested those early elementary years in his learning those behaviors, and we are glad we did. That made it much easier for the school to then see the need for academic acceleration in later elementary, and he had developed the skills to function in the school setting that made the acceleration possible.

It would be lovely if one could have it all tailored in K for the gifted/autistic-- our experience was that even if you can't, it can still be okay and worthwhile. It's not all about academics in the early grades; it's about whole child development.

DeeDee