howdy, they give it to those who are at achievement scores of 91st percentile or above, although they want to move this percentile up to include fewer kids. They also will do testing if a parent or teacher recommends a child, since if they get a high enough score on JUST ability/IQ testing (well over the 99th percentile) they don't need achievement scores.
Basically they are giving the CogAT because they are getting money from the State for identification purposes, but they want to give it to as few kids as possible. Then they have rigid cut scores for entry into the highly gifted program.