Mission

Clarkston School District is committed to identifying and providing for the intellectual,social, and emotional needs of our highly capable students in preparing them academically for college and career readiness.

Program Goals

Highly capable students will receive accelerated and enhanced learning opportunities to advance academic achievement and growth through a menu of options. Services will be designed to address the unique learning needs of each student and therefore, may vary from one student to the next. 

Appeals

Appeals are considered annually for students who did not meet the criteria for services, as determined by the district’s multidisciplinary selection committee. The multidisciplinary team will examine provided evidence of high ability and need for service placement.  Parents will be notified of the appeal process and timeline in the placement notification process.

Highly Capable Denial Appeal Form

Retesting

Students may retest for consideration during the subsequent spring referral window.

New/Transfer Students 

Out-of-district transfer students that have qualified in that district’s highly capable program are not automatically enrolled. Test scores and placement letters from the other district may be used as long as they meet our placement criteria. Students may need to re-test in Clarkston.  Transfer students will be provided services pending the district’s own assessment.

Annual Notification

Annual public notification of parents and students shall be made before any major identification activity in multiple ways including our district website, highly capable website, school newsletters, and available media resources.

Sept. – Oct.

• Identified students begin receiving highly capable services as scheduled for their grade levels

Kindergarten Referral Window - 2nd  week of December

• Opportunity for parents, teachers, and community members to nominate current kindergarten students for evaluation 

Kindergarten Parent Consent Window – 1st & 2nd week of January

• District requests permission from parents to assess referred students 

Kindergarten Testing – 3rd week of January

• Current kindergarten students are assessed for services  

Notification of results – 4th week of January

• Parent/guardians of assessed kindergarten students are notified of qualification

Kindergarten Commencement of Services – end of January

Feb./March

• Nomination period open for current K-6 students: February 14-March 14

March/April

• Screening of all nomination packets to determine eligibility for cognitive abilities

April/May

• Multidisciplinary selection committee meets and parents are notified of selection results
• Parents may appeal the selection committee decisions within 10 days of notification, as outlined in the nomination packet

Parent/Community Member Nomination/Referral form

The Clarkston School District utilizes the CogAT screener for all students referred for Highly Capable Services.  Students must score at least 95% in one or more areas for placement into the program. Students who score 90-94% will be considered for placement along with other district assessment data provided by local assessments such as: Dibels reading and math, Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI), Scholastic Math Inventory (SMI), and other locally delivered assessments.