My son is born in the fall and would qualify for a public gifted (and regular) program next year, but not private school. We are interested in exploring both public and private options. What advice do you have for us?

That is always a hard one!  I would suggest that you go ahead and have your child tested for gifted program and see how he does.  If he qualifies for a good one (or if you find a really good public general ed program), enroll him and if you are happy with the program, you may decide not to move him to a private school next year.  Or, you can still explore private schools next year, but you won’t have to decide about moving him until late in the year when you have experience with the public program he is in.

The downside of doing that is that your preschool director doesn’t have to help you apply to private school if you are no longer in her program.  But you can talk to her ahead of time and get her agreement to help you if you later decide you want to move your child to private school.  If  your family is in good standing at the preschool, she probably will.

If you do apply to private school next year, chances are the private school is likely to make your child repeat kindergarten since he is the age of their kindergarten students.  However, he’ll definitely test and interview very well with that much kindergarten under his belt!

If you are in this situation and you are a member of TestingMom.com, we would suggest that you set up a consult with us to talk this issue through.  The best thing to do often depends on many different factors and we can guide you through the decision process on this.