There are no cutoff dates for first grade. I haven't met anyone who took advantage of the early access program. I've heard that the testing is much more extensive than the testing required for the gt program.
Ours is such a strange state b/c it can vary so much from area to area. Where we live, there is an age cut-off for 1st grade. If the kid isn't six by 9/15 (or 6/15 or 10/1 -- other cut-offs for different districts near me!), s/he can't start 1st either unless s/he has completed K in a different district (public only). Point being, it can vary a lot even within one state, so it is well worth checking to see if there is a way around the cut-off especially if your child is close.
Re early entrance testing, I know that there are other states such as Oregon that also have it. What it entails, I do not know and I would expect that it is more extensive than GT admission in general b/c they are not aiming to offer early entrance for all GT kids. Where I am, GT admission requires a 95th percentile achievement score in any one area or evidence of subjective things like creativity, leadership, etc. That must be supplemented with one other area of evidence which can be, again, a 95th percentile ability score in the same one area or a host of other things ranging from parental rating scales to teacher rating scales to a portfolio of work. It winds up encompassing a pretty broad group of kids (about 15%+ of the general population and probably could be more if more parents pushed). This broad of a population probably wouldn't benefit from early entrance. I can only hope that the testing for early entrance weeds out mildly gifted kids but not kids who are really needing early admission. Of course, I wouldn't count on it!
