Early Entrance to Kindergarten & First Grade

Parents/guardians may refer a child for evaluation if the child will turn 5 between August 2 and December 31 (or 6, if applying to 1st grade). If the child’s birthday is between January 1 and August 1, the referral must come from a pediatrician, psychologist, or licensed Ohio educator with knowledge of the child’s cognitive and academic development. 

Parents/guardians must submit an application to the principal of their area school by March 31, for fall placement or November 1, for January placement. Applications after this date may not be accepted. The referral form is available online.

Once the referral and authorization to assess forms are received and reviewed by the principal, they are sent to the district administrator responsible for gifted education. This administrator will share the applications of the students to be considered for early entrance to kindergarten with the school psychologists who will schedule and conduct appropriate assessments, including both cognitive and achievement testing.

The cognitive assessment, which requires a minimum cognitive score of 115, will be normed based upon the child’s age and is used to determine whether further data will be collected. If the composite cognitive score is less than 115, then parents/guardians will be notified via email that their child did not meet the eligibility requirements for early entrance to kindergarten. 

The achievement tests will be normed for the student’s age and two years above. The scores from these cognitive and achievement assessments are placed on the Iowa Acceleration Scale (IAS), a research-based tool approved by the Ohio Department of Education & Workforce for this purpose. In alignment with the critical measures on this instrument, students must have a cognitive score at least one standard deviation above the mean (115 or higher) and a combination of achievement scores to meet a minimum threshold to continue on in the process. Those achievement scores are, on average, 90th percentile or higher compared to agemates and 50-75th percentile when using norms two years above.

If the referred child meets the minimum ability and achievement criteria during testing, the principal will contact the parent/guardian and schedule an acceleration evaluation committee meeting to conduct further review. This team consists of the student’s principal, potential teacher(s), gifted specialist, parent/guardian, and any other relevant support specialists. The team reviews the assessment data to look for patterns of strengths and needs. This data is summarized using score tables embedded in the instruments to generate a placement recommendation. 

The acceleration evaluation committee makes the final placement determination in light of the tool recommendation and other pertinent factors. The decision is made by consensus of all committee members; in the event consensus cannot be reached, a decision is made by a majority vote.