If you can afford a private school like Pegasus, do it. Otherwise I don't think the public school GATE program in Orange County, CA, has much to offer due to the state budget crisis.
My 1st grader was GATE identified by her Orange County elementary school last year, formally tested at 99th percentile in language/reasoning. At first we were excited because we received paperwork indicating she could be placed on a waiting list for the district GATE school, Trabuco Mesa, which had the SDC (special day class) of GATE students. I imagined her spending these formative years in a challenging environment alongside other gifted kids rather than just as bored as she was through most of 1st grade.
Long story short, it turns out there are no Special Day Classes for GATE students in our Saddleback Valley School district anymore, at least not in the lower grades. The information on the Trabuco Mesa Elementary website is outdated and wrong now, which means a lot has changed for the worse in just a couple of years. They said that some of their 5-6th grade classes do have a lot of GATE students but that's it.
There's a distinct sense that the GATE program is not a priority now. They don't have the staff to assign all the GATE students to anymore, at least that's the impression I got. Schools are struggling to stay above water here. They're always doing fund raisers just to keep programs going and staff on hand that I took for granted when I was a kid, and some great teachers got pink slips this year.
At this point, after the tests and the paperwork and dashed hopes, we're simply hoping our daughter gets a good 2nd grade teacher with GATE experience and maybe a couple of other GATE students in her 'cluster' to work alongside.
I have heard good things about Virginia's public schools and their handling of gifted children, however. I am looking seriously at moving out because there are no indicators that things will improve in California.
