We went with small GT private school right from the start because DS missed the age cutoff by 1 day (there is no flexibility here with that age cutoff), and we could not justify him spending 2 years in private K then going to public K - and because DS asked us to change schools/daycare at age 3.5 - it was too boring for him and he was too unhappy so the school we found has a pre-k entry level and from day 1, he loved it.
So even though he is now finally eligible for public schools, we are keeping him where his placement will fit him better than what public school will allow and where the student/ratio is more than 1/2 of our local public K (hard to beat 8-10 students with full time teacher and teacher's aide over 20 kids with one teacher and no aide). He loves his current school and teachers - and the school community and values are in line with ours. They place kids at their level for subject areas without us having to fight for it (even at the K level, kids move up to next class if math is not challenging, and they have materials up to early chapter books in that room so advanced readers are encourage to keep making good progress). They do a lot of social/emotional intelligence work along with academics.
We may look into public school options when he is older but for now, we have both kids in the same GT school. Where they love to go, and where their passion for learning is embraced, whatever speed it happens to be at.
