Gifted/talented schools? (Denver, Arvada, Westminster: 2013, house, neighborhood)

[Chlov99]

Hi, does anyone know where to find a comprehensive list of schools that have gifted and talented programs in the Denver metro area? I am having a difficult time finding a complete list, and many of the school district websites do not seem to have this information. Here is what I have compiled so far (for Jefferson County, Adams County, and Denver). Am I missing any schools with gifted/talented programs? And does anyone have input on any of these schools?

I am particularly interested in elementary schools that cater to gifted students who also have special needs (sensory issues, e.g.).

Stargate School K-8 - Thornton
Hulstrom Options K-8 - Northglenn
Westgate Community School K-8 - Northglenn
Broomfield Academy K-8
Polaris at Ebert Elementary - Denver
The Logan School for Creative Learning - Denver
Denver School of the Arts 6-12
Denver Center for Intl. Studies 6-12
Challenge School - Cherry Creek
Wheat Ridge High School

Thanks for any input!!

[Dreaming of Hawaii]

My grandson is in a gifted and talented program at Southmoor Elementary in DPS. He has Asberger's and gets help with that through the school.

My husband taught at the Challenge School for many years. It's a great school, but there is a long waiting list to get in. If you are looking at Fall 2013 for enrolling, you are too late.

You've missed a whole bunch of g/t schools in the Littleton and JeffCo Districts. I have no idea how to find a g/t school that also caters to special needs. I assume from your posting that you are basing your move to the metro area on what schools you find. Is that your only criteria?

[brown_dog_us]

I believe Denver schools have a gifted and talented program at almost every school. There is also a highly gifted and talented program at specific schools. This is from their website:

Current sites for the elementary school level Highly Gifted Program are Archuleta, Carson, Cory, Edison, Gust, Polaris at Ebert, Southmoor and Teller. Current site for the middle school level is Morey. Program enrollment priorities to each site are based on feeder schools.

You might want to send each school district an email describing your child's needs and ask them to recommend the best program/school in their district.

[AunaKC]

I have no experience with the districts or schools but have researched it for the fall when we relocate. My area of focus has just been with the school districts that we are looking to relocating from and mainly focusing on elementary. Calling and talking to the GT coordinators has also been very helpful. Visiting the schools during the school year was also helpful.

Jefferson County
GT options are available in GT Centers and the individual schools. They have testing/application dates in place for the GT centers but I am not sure of the other schools testing policies.Here is a listing of the GT Centers and other options for GT.
http://www.jeffcopublicschools.org/programs/gifted_talented/

Littleton
Does not have specialized schools but has a GT program that approach and offerings are different per school. I spoke at length with the district coordinator, she was extremely helpful. http://www.littletonpublicschools.net/Default.aspx?tabid=8703

Cherry Creek
As you have already noted, Cherry Creek has a specialized center called Challenger. It also has GT programs within each school. I don't know too much about this area because they would not let us submit testing information or apply for Challenger until we live in Denver. So it became not an option for us.

Douglas County
This is the one I know the least about, because we really did not focus our house search here. They do have a center I believe called Discovery and also offer option within the schools. They also have application deadlines for discovery.
https://www.dcsdk12.org/giftedandtalented/
https://www.dcsdk12.org/giftedandtalented/elementarydiscovery/elementarydiscovery

I have found the forum on http://www.davidsongifted.org to be helpful and the young Mensa group of Denver
http://www.us.mensa.org/

[Chlov99]

Thanks so much for your responses! I will check out the links and resources that you mentioned.

We're looking for a school that is specifically for gifted students or one that has gifted students grouped together in classrooms (rather than a regular school that merely provides more challenging worksheets or has an enrichment session or something) because it is supposed to be better for social & emotional outcomes to be matched with peers of similar ability.

All the non-private gifted schools I've come across so far are charter schools, so we would be on a waitlist. It sounds like Westgate might be a good match for us, but I'm not sure how long their waitlist is. I haven't been able to get in touch with any GT coordinators yet in any of the school districts, but I'm planning to try again this week.

@Dreaming: Schools are not the only criterion for us, but a very important one. My daughter can be very challenging (preschool did not work out well -- we had to move to half days and eventually stop), and if she is bored or if she is alienated from peers, etc., school could be disastrous. We're also trying to live near our relatives (Golden, Broomfield, Thornton) in a family-friendly neighborhood with good amenities like parks, pools, running/biking trails, and shopping nearby. We are leaning toward Thornton because it has a couple of GT schools and is more affordable than other areas that we are looking at (Golden, Arvada, Broomfield, Westminster).

[Chlov99]

Ok.... help! All the GT programs (at least the ones with GT classrooms, not just pullout or enrichment programs) either have year-long waitlists or don't start until first grade, so we are out of luck for kindergarten. After reading over a sample kindergarten curriculum, I am pretty sure my daughter already knows all the material they would teach in kindergarten.

So, what do I do? She has SPD and ridiculous amounts of energy, and she will be a terror if she is sitting around bored because they are teaching the alphabet when she is already reading chapter books. It doesn't seem like an ALP would help -- enrichment classes would not solve the problem of how she will spend the majority of the day, right? Or am I misunderstanding what an ALP entails? I don't like the idea of skipping kindergarten, especially with the SPD.

Any suggestions? I am thinking about homeschooling for the first year.

[davebarnes]

Ricks Center for Gifted Children at the University of Denver

[scrapper105]

Generally speaking, I don't think that gifted programs start in the public schools until 2nd grade. I've never heard of a gifted program in kindergarten. Sounds like homeschooling or a private school might be a better option for kindergarten and will give you time to do your research.

Perhaps some of the education departments at the local universities might have a good handle on area schools since they place students into various schools for the internship/student teaching programs.

[brown_dog_us]

Maybe it's not a gifted program that you need? Both of my daughters are gifted, and I see the one day a week they spend pulled out of the main group as an "extra" similar to art or music. They both get the day to day education in the main classroom. I imagine that your child will be bored for most of the week.

I think the posts above about talking to the local universities might be the best first step. Perhaps they could even offer some testing. Hopefully they would then be able to give you some guidance about the best path for your child.

[Chlov99]

Thanks!

@brown_dog_us, that's why I'm looking for a situation with an entire school (or at least a separate classroom) for gifted students, so that my daughter will be learning alongside other kids who are at a similar level.

@scrapper105, yes, it seems to vary from district to district. Jeffco schools start their GT program in 1st grade. They offer some advanced classes for kindergarten, but of course, they are full. Thornton and Northglenn have several schools that are GT-only or advanced- and GT-only, and those begin in kindergarten. But, they are also full with waitlists