Early Access means the early entrance into kindergarten or first grade for highly advanced gifted children under the age of six.

The purpose of early access is to identify and serve the few highly advanced gifted children who require comprehensive academic acceleration. It is not recommended for the majority of age 4 and 5-year-old gifted children.

• Early access students must be age 4 for kindergarten or age 5 for first grade by Aug. 1 of the given school year.

• Please contact the Gifted & Talented Coordinator, Jamie Shores, for Application Portfolio* Materials and to answer any questions.

• EA applications and portfolios will be available on January 8, 2024 and must be received by February 5, 2024.

• The Open Enrollment application period is February 1 – April 1, 2024. SMCS Enrollment Application must be received by April 1, 2024. Please note: If you qualify for Early Access, you will still need to participate in the general lottery to gain entrance to SMCS. Qualification for Early Access does not alter a student's odds of gaining entrance through the general lottery.

• Phase 1: Initial Screening Determination will be made by March 6, 2024. G & T Coordinator will let you know if your student will move on for further assessment. If indicators are met to proceed then a fee of $250 must be received for further formal evaluation (proceed to phase 2).

• Phase 2: March 7- April 4, 2024 Further evidence for BOE gathered via aptitude and achievement assessments, determination meeting held, provide parent with determination letter.

• Final Determination Letter will be sent in writing to parents by April 4, 2024

• If you disagree with the final determination, you may Appeal** the decision. See the Appeal Process below.

*Application Portfolio: Please contact Jamie Goodrich for materials. Portfolio is to be compiled by the parent and needs to include:

• Referral: initiated by the parent or from screenings by the Kindergarten and Preschool teachers.

• Cover Letter

• Work samples in Writing and Math FROM HOME and FROM CURRENT TEACHER

• Copies of reading assessments from current teacher

• Parent questionnaire

• GES-3 Gifted Evaluation scale or SIGS rating scales completed by preschool/Kindergarten teacher

• Permission to do further assessments.

**Appeal Process:

Any parent who feels the determination of the review team is inappropriate should file an appeal in writing with the Coordinator of the Gifted Program. The appeals to placement decisions will be forwarded to the Student Intervention Team (SIT) who may collect additional assessment data, along with parental input, and refer back to the review team for reconsideration based on the additional evidence. If a parent disagrees with the outcome of the appeal, s/he will be referred to the exceptional students coordinator from CSI who will review all placement procedures to assure CSI identification procedures were followed. The CSI exceptional students coordinator will provide the parents, review team and SIT with a written determination.

Costs: It is the responsibility of families interested in Early Access to pay for the assessments required to build a body of evidence for the student. A fee of $250 will be assessed for those families that do not qualify for free and reduced lunch. Families may choose to use private testing (see list of accepted measurement/assessment tools) as long the data was collected within the three months prior to applying.

Body of Evidence for Early Access Determination: Data is recorded in a body of evidence. Data from private testing may be used in the body of evidence if data was collected within the last three months. All data in the body of evidence is considered for the determination of early access. The review team will consist of G/T coordinator, a Children’s House guide, and may also include Head of School, and Exceptional Students Coordinator. Review team will look for aptitude, achievement, performance, readiness and social behavior in the 97%ile of the student’s peer group. (See lists below of possible assessments).

Aptitude: 97%ile on:

• Wechsler Intelligence Assessments (WIPPSI),

• Differential Abilities Scale (DAS),

• Test of Early Mathematics Ability (TEMA),

• Test of Early Reading Ability (TERA)

• Stanford Binet Intelligence Scales, 5th Edition (SB 5)

• Battelle Developmental Inventory, Second Edition (BDI- 2) †

• Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test 2nd Edition (K-BIT2)

Achievement: 97%ile on:

• school-based reading inventories (DRA, QRI, DIBELS, STAR, etc.),

• individual math placement tests and formal assessments

Performance: 97%ile in:

• work samples,

• portfolio,

• Kingore Observation Inventory for Parents,

• performance examples, and/or

• product examples.

• recordings of student performance, and/or

• examples of work

Readiness, social behavior, and motivation: 97%ile on:

• Scales for Rating the Behavior Characteristics of Superior Students R (SRBCSS-R),

• Vineland, and/or

• Young Children’s Academic Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (Y-CAIMI)

• TS Gold Kindergarten Readiness Assessment

SMCS contact for Early Access: Jamie Shores