May I ask what state you live in? I know that Ohio has an acceleration policy.
We're in Oklahoma.
I really see the formal statewide policy as a double-edged sword. For a kid who can jump through the required hoops, the policy keeps an uncooperative local school from vetoing acceleration. But if you have a kid who doesn't test well for any reason, or who barely misses the cutoff, there's no provision for a cooperative local district to allow acceleration based on teacher recommendation, for instance.
Plus, the process isn't well-publicized. I went back through press releases, and our district announces only one of the two test dates each year, with that announcement made only on the school website, a week or two before the deadline. If you didn't already know about it, you'd never know about it.
DD's first grade teacher said there were several kids in the class she felt had the skills to go straight to third - but that she wasn't allowed to suggest that to their parents. (I think that's a fair assessment, too - they'd just done achievement testing, and DD did not get the highest scores in her class, although she was in the top group.) I really wish the district publicized the program and encouraged every kid with a GT identification or teacher recommendation to attempt it - if skips and accelerations were less unusual, I think it would be better for everyone's education.
I also wish there were a provision for mid-year skips / accelerations. While we have two test dates (late spring and late summer), the acceleration is effective at the start of the next school year only.
