Welcome.
I just wanted you to know that not all is lost in CA public schools. But it does depend on where.. but there are usually no programs until at the very minimum 2nd and more commonly 4th grade. GATE is officially statewide but for many districts doesn't start in 4th grade, and in some districts while a students can be labeled as GATE the school does very little.
My school district does have a highly touted gifted program unfortunately this also comes hand in hand with crazy amounts of homework and lots of stress. Not sure what to tell you about K. DS learned very little there except to follow directions from the teacher and get along with the other kids. Since it was only part time I didn't really stress all that much about it.
