School districts use various ways to determine "giftedness," but my son was a "conundrum kid" to his teachers, and we ended up having him tested privately at age 6 1/2 to confirm our suspicions. Otherwise, our public school would screen all 2nd graders to seek out the kids for the G/T program that would start in 3rd grade.

My son was extremely advanced in some areas, and he did read before kindergarten, but he struggled to do anything involving written work or sitting still. He was considered disruptive by his kindergarten teacher, and we thought part of his problem was boredom, but his difficulty with spelling/writing was puzzling. We decided to move him out of the public school because they didn't begin gifted programming until 3rd grade, and the private gifted school required private IQ and achievement testing as part of their entry criteria. He turns out to be in the 99.9th percentile as far as IQ, and can get into Mensa, but he was also found to have dyslexia and ADHD. The term for kids like that is "2e" or "twice exceptional."

I sincerely doubt your son has the kinds of issues my son has, and with kindergarten "reading tracks" your school seems like it's better suited to differentiate instruction for the students, so you can probably just wait until his school does their routine testing for entry into the gifted programs, and then you'll find out! For now, you might also like to join Greatschools Kindergarten Parents Group at community.greatschools.net/groups/11535

Thank you. I appreciate the advice and the links to all the resources. I just checked the San Jose school district website and they start the G/T programs in second grade once they administer the RPM test. Actually, I know my child is bright, but I am not even sure yet if my son is a G/T student in the context they speak of. How did you find out?
One thing that is clear to me is that our friend's child who proficiently read the Dr. Seuss Go Dog Go, Are you my mother etc. before KG was learning the alphabet, sounds etc. all over again for the first few months of KG. I think its a shame to waste a fertile mind for that long instead of getting new challenges. That's why I am doing this research.
I visited the local Challenger school yesterday and they told me that they had a couple of 'tracks' for reading levels within KG where children who were advanced readers were placed together and received more advanced reading material. I checked out the books and they seemed like something he would enjoy. I am sure there will be changes in him by next year, but I'll just have to wait and see, I guess. At the moment, both my husband and I work 10+ hours a day and have another baby coming. It will be very difficult if we have to pick up the task of keeping him engaged if the school doesnt :-(.

Hi. I'm not in CA, but I have a son and several friends whose children were also considered quite gifted. If I were you, I'd try to find out when your local public schools begin their G/T (gifted/talented) programming...many don't start until 3rd grade. If that's the case, you may want to consider private education. My son attended a private gifted school that was accredited through www.nais.org (National Association of Independent Schools) and you might also want to join local gifted organizations, to network through those families to find out about best schools and other resources in the area.
For general questions, you might also like to join Greatschools Gifted Group at community.greatschools.net/groups/11537, and OGTOC at giftedonlineconferences.ning.com/?xgi=caROhJu
The link noted above is an invitation to join the NING website for OGTOC (Our Gifted/Talented Online Conferences) where there are hundreds of people and different chat groups for all kinds of Gifted issues.