We live in a school district where gifted education starts at 4th grade. We opt for a private school for the children due to smaller class sizes. I would have to push pretty hard at the current school to get any accelerations/differentiations, if any.
I think this can really depends on the teacher. We too live in an area where gifted education starts at 4th grade. Before elementary I looked into various options and ended up deciding to just go with the public elementary for a multitude of reasons. One because their gifted program in 4th grade was supposedly excellent and the best in the area. And two because there are a large number of gifted kids in the local schools and the school had informal "gifted" clusters in the lower grades.
K-3rd grade wasn't perfect but my son seemed content enough at school in early elementary. Second grade was the biggest challenge because that teacher wouldn't allow any of the "challenge" math material until the at grade level math work was done. Problem was my son was slow (embarrassingly I've only figure out after 9th grade why) and would never get to the interesting work. I do wonder if maybe I should have pushed harder but I felt there wasn't a huge rush, it didn't keep him out of the top math track he started in 4th grace. The other teachers he had during that time were informally accommodating (not just to him), and gave him more advanced work when they could fit it into the curriculum. For example for a book report, the teacher would expect a more advanced book & more advanced writing. I could have pushed for more but I figured he was learning other important skills being in a classroom setting.
I wonder if while they are no official accelerations at your school there still are some accommodations? Most schools that I know of are aware that kids pick up reading at different speeds. Are there different reading or math groups within the classroom. Are they subjects they are allowed to work on at their own speed? Open ended projects that help keep them engaged? There other things than acceleration that can keep a gifted child engaged, although that depends on how gifted. A PG child isn't unlikely to find a in-class accommodations very helpful.
