Highly Capable Program

How are students referred for the Highly Capable Program?  

Identification procedures begin with a referral from a parent/guardian/teacher/community member for students currently in first, second, third or fourth grade. 

Regardless of who makes the referral, the parent/guardian must complete, sign, and submit the consent form for their student by the posted deadline.  

Referral deadline:   

• For students in first through fourth grade, the referral deadline was November 10, 2025. We are no longer accepting referral forms for the 2025-2026 school year. 
• The referral deadline for the 2026-2027 school year will be posted by September 2, 2026.
• If you joined EPS after November 10, 2025, contact the Highly Capable office for information about alternate testing dates.

When will Highly Capable testing be administered for the 2026-2027 school year?  

During the months of December 2026 to January 2027, the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) and IOWA Assessments will be administered to students in grades 1-4 who have been referred for testing. Regardless of who made the referral, written consent for testing must be provided by a parent/guardian. (This referral process is separate from the screening process that takes place in the fall in grades K, 1, and 5.) 

Parents/guardians will be notified of the testing dates at their student's school. Please note that attendance is important. If, however, your student is ill, please do not bring them to school on the testing day. A parent/guardian must notify the Highly Capable office within 24 hours of the missed testing date to reschedule the test during the testing window. Please send this notification to highlycapable@everettsd.org. 

What will students experience during Highly Capable testing?  

Trained proctors will guide students through the CogAT and Iowa Assessments online using Chromebooks and headphones at the student's school. The students participating will have regular breaks and will be going to lunch and recess with their classmates. The tests will take the majority of a regular school day and do not require any special preparation or studying. However, you can encourage your student to answer all the questions, relax and do their “best work.” It’s always helpful for students to have a good night’s sleep before a test and a healthy breakfast in the morning. 

• Currently, the oral instructions and questions on the Highly Capable tests (CogAT and Iowa Assessments) are delivered in English only. They are not available in multiple languages*. The tests, however, do not require reading skills in the primary grades (1-2). Directions and questions are delivered orally via headset.
• *If your student’s first language is not English and they are being served with ML supports, as identified by the WIDA, alternate testing options will be available .   

What happens after Highly Capable testing? 

The window for testing is in December and January. Once the window closes, a multidisciplinary selection committee meets to review student data. Parents/guardians will receive communication via ParentSquare/ParentVUE following the committee meeting with test results and the committee’s recommendation for identification/placement.  

The identification process for the Highly Capable Program follows the closing of the testing window at the end of January. A multidisciplinary committee composed of the highly capable program director, school psychologist, director of assessment and research, principals of schools with highly capable classrooms, teachers of highly capable students, and other appointed professionals meet to review student data. The committee makes the identification and placement recommendations based on the results of the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) and Iowa Assessments in reading and math as well as other classroom assessments including iReady, and SBA if available. Placement recommendations could be:  

• Continued placement in the general education classroom
• Learning enrichment in reading, math or both, in the general education classroom 
• Placement in the self-contained, highly capable classroom 

Identified students receive a recommendation to participate in the Highly Capable Program at one of the nine elementary schools that host Highly Capable Centers in the district. Students learn and study in self-contained classrooms with an accelerated curriculum that encourages them to learn at a faster pace and develop higher level thinking skills. Students are taught and graded at one grade level above their chronological grade in reading and mathematics. Thus, regular attendance is essential for successful participation in this program.  

These self-contained classrooms are located at the following elementary schools: Cedar Wood, Forest View, Mill Creek, Monroe, Penny Creek, Silver Firs, Tambark Creek, Whittier, View Ridge. Each of the 18 neighborhood schools is assigned to a Highly Capable Center which may have multi-age classrooms to accommodate the number of students qualifying each year. 

• Cedar Wood Elementary: serves Cedar Wood, Woodside 
• Forest View Elementary: serves Forest View
• Mill Creek Elementary: serves Mill Creek   
• Monroe Elementary: serves Monroe, Jefferson, Silver Lake   
• Penny Creek Elementary: serves Penny Creek
• Silver Firs Elementary:  serves Silver Firs
• Tambark Creek Elementary: serves Tambark Creek
• View Ridge Elementary: serves View Ridge, Emerson, Jackson, Madison, Lowell    
• Whittier Elementary: serves Whittier, Hawthorne, Garfield    

If placement in the Highly Capable Program is recommended, a parent/guardian must complete the Highly Capable consent form, accepting or declining placement, sign and return the form by the posted deadline. 

Transportation for families living within district boundaries is offered for identified students to their assigned Highly Capable Center/School. Identified students whose home school has a Highly Capable Center will not have a change of transportation services. Identified students must attend the assigned center unless they follow the district variance process. Transportation is NOT available for students who have obtained a variance.  

If you have questions about placement and/or highly capable center/school locations, call 425-385-4033 OR email highlycapable@everettsd.org. 

The Everett Public Schools, in compliance with the Washington State rules for Highly Capable Programs (WAC 392-170-047), has an appeal process. Decisions of the Multi-Disciplinary Selection Committee can be appealed only in the spring of the same school year in which the student was tested. The deadline for submitting an appeal this year is March 30, 2026, by 5:00 p.m.

If you do not agree with the placement decision and you wish to appeal, you must complete a Placement Decision Appeal Form. An appeal must be based upon a specific criterion related to the assessment conditions, or to a misapplication or miscalculation of the scores. Appeals outside of the following criterion will not be processed.   

1. An extraordinary circumstance occurred during testing that may have negatively affected the validity of the test results (i.e. a building wide power outage that interfered with testing, Chromebook malfunction that did not allow the student to complete all questions). 
2. A misapplication or miscalculation of the assessment data (i.e., incorrect birthdate or grade level used in calculating the student’s score). 

An appeal submitted for reasons other than above will be denied. No outside testing will be considered. The decision of the Appeal Review Team is final. 

The following procedures are in place for an appeal: 

1. A parent/guardian must complete and submit the Highly Capable Selection Decision Appeal Form. 

2. All completed appeal forms and supporting evidence must be submitted to the Highly Capable Program office by the specified deadline. Outside cognitive testing or evaluations will not be accepted as supporting documentation for the appeal process. 

3. The appeal will be reviewed by the Multi-Disciplinary Selection Committee shortly after the specified deadline. 

4. The decision of the Multi-Disciplinary Selection Committee on all appeals is final. 

Please e-mail the completed appeal form to highlycapable@everettsd.org. All completed appeal forms and supporting evidence must be submitted to the Highly Capable Program office by 5:00pm on March 30, 2026. You will receive an email confirmation upon receipt of your submission. If you don’t receive a confirmation of receipt after sending, please call 425-385-4033. Late forms will not be accepted. 

Advanced Learning Options consist of a variety of models and services and therefore are dynamic and fluid. Everett Public Schools has a procedure to allow students to exit the Highly Capable (HC) Program after placement/participation, if desired. Depending on the circumstances of the withdrawal request, one of the following procedures will be followed: 

Parent/guardian requests that the student no longer take part in the Highly Capable Program. In this case, the parent/guardian submits a written request to exit the program and sends it to P-5 Instruction and Early Learning Programs, 3900 Broadway, Everett, WA 98201, or email to highlycapable@everettsd.org. A copy of all communication will be placed in the student’s file. 

• If it is evident that the student is consistently having difficulty in the program, school staff members, highly capable staff, and parents/guardians will meet to discuss student progress and support. Placement in the HC classroom will be reviewed to determine if it is in the best interest of the student. The decision to exit a student from the program will be based on data demonstrating that the student is consistently struggling to meet HC standards. 

• If a decision is made to exit the student from the HC Program, the student will be reassigned to a general education classroom at their neighborhood school, unless a variance is approved to remain at the current school or the current school is also their neighborhood school. 

EXIT FORM