Highly capable services are designed to meet the unique needs of students beyond general education. One way to explore if this program would be a good fit for your student is to discuss your student’s academic abilities and performance with his or her teacher(s). Aside from high academic performance, here are some typical intellectual characteristics of highly capable children:

• Unusually large vocabulary for their age
• Ability to read earlier than most children
• Greater comprehension of the subtleties of language
• Longer attention span, persistence and intense concentration
• Ability to learn basic skills more quickly and with less practice
• Wide range of interests
• Highly developed curiosity and a limitless supply of questions
• Interest in experimenting and doing things differently
• Tendency to put ideas together in ways that are unusual and not obvious (divergent thinking)
• Ability to retain a great deal of information
• Unusual sense of humor

For more information on traits of highly capable students, see Traits of Giftedness.

The application period for the next school year's program is held in the fall of each school year. It is open to students in kindergarten through seventh grade applying for the highly capable program.

The highly capable application is submitted online. If you do not have access to the internet, or need an application in a language other than English, please contact the Accelerated Programs office for an application form. If you need assistance uploading required documents, please contact the Accelerated Programs Office.

No. Applications are only accepted from students who reside within Lake Washington School District boundaries. To reside in the district means that the student lives at an address within the school district.

Parents are not allowed to observe highly capable classrooms. Visitors can be a distraction to any classroom so it is important to keep visits to a minimum.

The Gifted Education Advisory Council (GEAC) is a good source of information about the highly capable program, especially from the perspective of parents. GEAC holds monthly general meetings, provides parent information and support and maintains a GEAC Facebook page.

A goal of the Highly Capable Services Continuum is to provide maximum choice at the high school level to enable students to tailor their program of advanced studies as much as possible based on their post-secondary goals. To that end we offer a variety of rigorous options at the high school level that our highly capable students can participate in including Advanced Placement (AP) course options, Honors Courses, Choice Schools and programs, Running Start and Early College in the High School. Each of our high schools provide accelerated course enrollment options. This approach ensures that students are not required to attend school at a specific location to participate in accelerated learning options.

Yes. Screening requirements vary by grade level, so read the application materials very carefully. All applicants must meet the screening requirements to be assessed for the highly capable program. Visit Washington Administrative Code Chapter 392-170 and Revised Code of Washington Chapter28A.185 for information on Washington state regulations for highly capable services.

For students in kindergarten and through third grade, please upload the following documents when you complete the online application:

• Proof of Residency – Residency Verification Form with two documents listed on the Residency Checklist. These documents must be for the location where the student resides.
• Proof of Age – a copy of your child’s passport or birth certificate

In addition, for students in Grades 4 to 7, please upload the documents listed above when you complete the online application and:

• Standardized test results (such as the SBA or other state assessment or the Iowa Assessment) from the previous school year

NOTES:

1. If your school does not give any form of standardized testing such as state testing or the IOWA, please submit a letter from your school on school letterhead, stating that the school does not administer any state or standardized testing to your child.
2. Please make sure you have all of the documents assembled before you begin the application.  If you have any trouble uploading required documents, please contact the Accelerated Programs Office.

All students with complete applications will be screened for highly capable services. Students who meet the screening criteria will be scheduled for additional assessments..

Testing dates for assessments are generally determined and announced before the application window opens.  

For the 2022-23 school year, assessment dates will be posted as an update on the Accelerated Programs main page when determined.  

Once your application is complete, you will receive an email with the information for your assessment window. All assessments will be held at the student's home school.

Appeals will not be considered for illness. Please email quest@lwsd.org before the test begins if your child is going to miss a scheduled test due to illness. Students who are not feeling well on the date of the original test are given one opportunity to test on the makeup date within the assessment window. Only one makeup date will be scheduled for each test. The district sets the date for that makeup test. Applications for students who miss a regularly scheduled test and the makeup test will be closed.

Appeals will not be considered for a family emergency. Please email quest@lwsd.org before the test begins if your child is going to miss a scheduled test due to a family emergency. Students who are not feeling well on the date of the original test are given one opportunity to test on the makeup date within the assessment window. Only one makeup date will be scheduled for each test. The district sets the date for that makeup test. Applications for students who miss a regularly scheduled test and the makeup test will be closed.

The district does not accept private testing results in place of the highly capable identification process. All students must go through the district’s identification process to be eligible for highly capable services.

Highly Capable assessment criteria are applied equitably to all applicants. Appeals for reconsideration of students who have not met the assessment criteria are reviewed by the Multidisciplinary Selection Committee after notification of screening results and after notification of the Multidisciplinary Selection Committee placement decision. Appeals must be submitted to the Accelerated Programs Office in writing within 10 calendar days of notification of results using the online LWSD Highly Capable Program Appeal Form. If you do not have access to a computer, please contact the Accelerated Programs Office at 425-936-1238 or email quest@lwsd.org. Appeals must be based upon a specific criteria related to the screening/testing conditions, or to a misapplication or miscalculation of the scores. Appeals outside of this will not be processed. The decision of the appeal review team is final.