Students who demonstrate a need beyond regular general education instruction and are identified through the LWSD assessment receive

• Classroom-Based Services or

• Full-Time Quest

Classroom-Based Services (CBS)

CBS is provided for all K-5 students who have advanced academic needs in literacy or math or in both, literacy and math. Services are provided in the general education classroom by their regular classroom teacher.

Full-Time Quest (FTQ)

FTQ is provided for students in grades 2-5 who have been identified with academic needs that go beyond the scope of a general education classroom. These students show both academic and cognitive needs that require advanced educational differentiation and students are served in self-contained classrooms at specified FTQ locations (which often are not the student’s neighborhood school).

Students in LWSD are universally screened in two elementary grades: All students in grades 2 and 5 will automatically be screened by LWSD. No referral is necessary for those students.

For all other grades, students have to be referred for assessment. The referral window is typically at the beginning of the school year, please visit the district website and watch out for district communication for specific dates.

• Families of enrolled LWSD students (grades K–7): Since 2025, referrals are submitted through Skyward.

• Private and homeschool families: Please visit district website for current information.

Highly capable service results are posted on Skyward, not sent out by email.

To view results, open your FamilyAccess account and select the “Portfolio” tile. Select the download arrow in front of the “2025-26HiCapService Identification Results” to access the document.

The document will show you scores that went into the assessment of your student as well as a result and service decision.

Students identified for classroom-based services (math and/or literacy) will remain in their general education classroom at their neighborhood school. They will not be pulled out of their classroom or moved to a different school to receive services.

Students are identified to receive CBS in literacy alone, math alone, or in both, literacy and math. Your student’s results on Skyward will indicate which of these three options (CBS literacy, CBS math, or CBS literacy and math) your student was identified for.

CBS is at grade level. It is not an accelerated program and focused on extending/enriching the curriculum.

Small groups can be one of the tools to deliver CBS.

Teachers may use different strategies to assign students to small groups. In some cases, a diagnostic test at the beginning of a unit may reveal that some students not initially identified as hicap require support at the same level as identified hicap students. The CBS model allows for flexible small group formation, enabling the inclusion of non-hicap students.

Please note the actual teaching strategies is up-to each teacher and can differ in each school/class. Please work with the Teacher, School Administration, MTSS Coach at each school to provide feedback. If this is not working, Please reach out to Accelerated Programs.

More info on CBS present at LWSD Site

Training for staff

MTSS* coaches and teachers receive training and professional development on hicap education. In addition, Accelerated Programs collaborates with the Teaching and Learning Department on extension modules, projects, enrichment activities, etc to extend the currently used curriculum in math and literacy (Illustrative Math and Wonders) to be suitable as hicap material for CBS. These new resources go beyondthe regular curriculum and are made accessible to general education teachers to facilitate their application.

*MTSS = Multi-Tiered System of Supports: MTSS is a WA state-wide framework that ensures core academic, behavioral, social and emotional instruction for all students. MTSS works with tiers (1-3) of increasing support systems, so students requiring more attention may receive additional intensive or individualized levels (tiers) of support depending on need. Each school building in LWSD has an MTSS coach who works with staff on implementing these tiered supports. (see this OSPI pdf for more)

Students will still be identified through the referral process and will continue to carry a hicap designation (but CBS instead of K5HC).

When identified as CBS, students will receive enrichment and extension work from the general education teacher in their classroom.

Your student’s Quest location is determined by their home school. The new Quest Feeder Pattern for Full-Time Quest for the school year of 2025/26 can be found below on the GEAC FAQ page. Please note that there are changes to 2026/27 school year. Refer to the GEAC FAQ page‍ ‍or the district website for the 2026/27 school year pattern.

As FTQ is a service and not a school, these locations are subject to change (and have in fact been changed over the past years).

Students in CBS will be served in their home classroom.

FTQ works at the same grade level as general education except for Math. Math instruction is one grade level ahead of the LWSD general education curriculum.

The curriculum can be found here on the district website. In addition to the general curriculum, Quest teachers have the option to enrich the learning experience of their hi-cap students. By working through the curriculum at an accelerated pace, they free up time to add group work, novel studies, long term projects, presentations, etc. This, as mentioned above, is teacher dependent and can differ from Quest classroom to Quest classroom.

Middle School Quest generally follows the same curriculum as the general education population. Some classes are taught in Quest cohort classes (6th grade Math and 6, 7, and 8 grade ELA + Social Studies). Some are mixed classes with Quest and general education students (Algebra, Geometry, Science, Electives).

Math (Accelerated): 6th grade in Quest cohort classes teaching 7th grade Math curriculum; 7th grade teaches Algebra in mixed classes; 8th grade does Geometry in mixed classes (that’s the default, Quest kids can opt out of Algebra in 7th if they choose to).

Science (At Grade Level): 6th, 7th, and 8th grade mixed classes teaching standard curriculum at level. Differentiation planned to take place in the classroom based on the teacher.

English and Social Studies (Grade Level - Enrichment): 6th, 7th, and 8th grade are taught in Quest cohort classes with at level curriculum. Compacting, additional novel studies, and enrichment are teacher dependent. All 8th graders take part in National History Day in social studies.

The LWSD secondary curriculum can be found here.

You got an acceptance letter from the Accelerated Programs Office that your student qualified for hicap services in LWSD and you accepted – what now?

CBS: If your student receives CBS, services will be provided at your neighborhood school in the gen ed classroom. No change of school is required for CBS and no further action required.

FTQ: If your student qualified for FTQ, you will receive an email specifying the service location. FTQ service locations may change over time and the LWSD Accelerated Programs Office sends out location information some time in the spring (typically between April and May). The Accelerated Programs Office takes into account multiple factors to decide FTQ locations, commute distance, middle school feeder patterns, class sizes and overall enrollment numbers. Please see the GEAC FAQ page for elementary school pattern based on your current home school.

CBS and FTQ families will receive teacher and school welcome information at the same time as other classes and teachers, usually in late August.

If you are a homeschool or private school family that is entering LWSD for the hicap program, please remember to get your school registration done in time and all necessary paperwork submitted.

The last week of summer break is back to business week, often with meet and greets at the school. These are a great opportunity to see the school and get to know your teacher. Please check your Quest school’s PTA page for information and dates on the meet & greet!

In addition, keep an eye out for GEAC or PTA back to school or summer playdates at your Quest location!

For 2025/-2026 school year visit the following link and fill out the form -Detailed Cogat Report

Please note that the additional assessment used to determine eligibility can change every year.

Overview

LWSD announced changes to the hicap service models which were ;it into effect for the 2025/26 school year. The changes will affected students, hicap as well as those in general education, but are most impactful for those who currently receive hicap pull-out services (K5HC math and/or K5HC reading or Pull-Out Quest).

• K5HC was cancelled. Starting in the 2025/26 school year, students with a K5HC designation (math only, literacy only and math+literacy) receive hicap services in the classroom, which are called Classroom-Based Services, or CBS. CBS will be delivered by the general education classroom teacher through differentiation.

• POQ was cancelled. All students in grades 2-5 carrying a Pull-Out Quest designation were moved into Full-Time Quest services with the beginning of the 25/26 school year. POQ students who are currently in 5th grade started MSQ in the fall.

• FTQ and MSQ remain as is for now. Both Full-Time Quest as well as Middle School Quest will continue without changes to the service model in the 2025/26 school year.

Please find the official district information on the Accelerated Programs website. LWSD identification process FAQ is upto date

Quest students are offered transportation to their Quest location when the Quest location isn’t their neighborhood home school. Buses leave from the neighborhood school, there are no bus stops in the neighborhood. That means that you will need to organize transportation from home to the neighborhood school and back home in the afternoon. Example: Home school: Keller, Quest location: Thoreau. In the mornings, your student’s bus will leave from Keller Elementary and drive to Thoreau Elementary. You will need to get your student to Keller Elementary, e.g. by walking, biking, or driving. Vice versa for the way back.

Quest buses usually leave earlier than regular neighborhood buses in the morning and pick students up from multiple feeder schools on their way to the Quest location. The reverse is true after school. The more feeder schools along the bus route, the longer the commute.

Bus schedules usually are given out on rather short notice, unfortunately. Your school won’t have this information, the safest place to check for the bus information is Skyward (http://family.lakewashington.wa-k12.net). Transportation often also emails bus information out. The bus stop tool on the district website hasn’t always been reliable with respect to Quest, even with the advanced search.

To ease anxiety around not knowing the bus schedule, it can be helpful to plan on driving your child or organize a carpool to the Quest location for the first few days, especially when going to a new location.

When LWSD sends scores to families, it only includes a scaled score but omits a percentile rank. The OSPI website provides frequency distribution tables which help families to understand how their student's performance compares to others. For example, for the last school year (2024-2025) go to  sba-wcas-spring-2025.xlsx .  The first column lists your child's scaled score  and the subsequent columns represent grades 3 through 10 percentiles, Additionally, there are ELA, Math and Science tabs at the bottom. For example, if your child was a 4th grader last school year and received a Math score of 2594 , open the Math tab, find "2594" value in the first column, and look up the score in column C (labeled "04" which represents 4th grade), the result will be 88.1%. Note that frequency distribution reports for the most recent school year are not available until the beginning of the next school year in fall However, since percentiles tend not to change much (e. g., the same score 2594 corresponded to 88.8% for the 2023-2024 school year), you can have a rough estimate for your student's results.  

The Environmental Domain in the Eligibility Results contains the information relevant to students who qualify for the ML program, have IEP/504 plan, or are eligible for free/reduced lunch, If your child qualifies for any of these services, make sure the Environmental Domain is not empty.

LWSD does not require hicap teachers to have specific hicap educators certification when hired. Teachers can attend hicap specialized professional development.

GEAC often steps in and sponsors Quest teachers to attend professional development on gifted education through our grants program (for example covering registration fees for WAETAG). Please help us spread the word so more teachers plan for that!

GEAC is completely funded through contributions from our community. Please become a member. Please opt for corporate matching if it is available to you.

We love our volunteers! GEAC is a completely volunteer run organization. No prior experience needed. Please send a mail to info@lwsdgeac.org.

If you are looking to volunteer in your Quest classroom, please contact your teacher, they’ll let you know about the best ways to support them and the students.

Per State Law, all Washington State school districts have to offer highly capable services. They can’t be simply cancelled or abolished. Having said that, how school districts interpret appropriate hicap support is up to them and their solutions to offering the best support and service for their hicap students can look vastly different fom district to district. LWSD has recently started a full K-8 hicap program review. The services offered in LWSD as well as current eligibility processes have been looked at and opportunities for improvements are being identified. Changes to the K-5 service model have been announced late January 2025 and will be carried forward to 2025/26, 2026/27. Changes to the highly capable services for middle school have not yet been presented.

Please refer to the variance process form and the procedure at LWSD Site . Schools that are open for enrollment via the variance process are documented here.

Please note that If the In-District Variance request is approved, parents/guardians are required to provide transportation for their student(s) to the new transfer school.