Good morning! This my first time posting. My DD is 6 and has been grade accelerated. She is currently in 1st and is participating in a gifted program based upon OLSAT scores. We have been really lucky up until this point. The school administration and teachers were the ones that came to us with the grade acceleration and gifted recommendations. Unfortunately, we are set to move at the end of the school year. We will be in two different states over the next year. I am wondering if we should have IQ testing done prior to the move? Any advice would be appreciated!

Gifted education varies so much from state to state that it's almost impossible to say. For example, we paid for private testing and no one in our district seemed to care about the results.

Perhaps a better tactic is to ask whether others here are living in in that location and can provide feedback.

Thanks so much for the advice! I called the school directly and spoke with them. Unfortunately the school doesn't provide much in the way of gifted education. They simply id the kids and let their teachers know so they can provide some differentiation.

I am wondering now if we should do testing to know exactly what we are working with and to determine if we should seek out private schools.

If that's the situation, then yes I think private testing might be very helpful and you should definitely look at other possibilities in your new district (private, but also potentially magnet/charter schools and other alternative educational opportunities).

I think the testing might be helpful but be prepared that even private schools might not care too much about it. I took DS to a neuropsych after a brain injury and we found out he was gifted by accident, basically. In the report he said that DS should be placed in gifted ed or he's at risk for not being successful, and the school completely dismissed everything. The teacher wouldn't differentiate at all. If i had paid for private testing I would have been furious, but luckily it was covered under insurance.

This. We weren't furious to have paid because it helped us understand and advocate for DD better. We were however furious that no one in the public school system cared one single bit about the results or the very thorough analysis.

Thanks so much for the advice! I think I will talk to several of the private schools where we are moving and see what services they offer. We have been thinking about testing for awhile now. I really think it would help us understand her better, but my husband is worried that we will push her too much once we get the results. Having a school aged child really adds an extra level of stress to a move!