Jefferson County Public Schools lists Gifted General Intellect Testing from Monday, October 12, 2026, through Friday, October 23, 2026. The district procedures handbook says schools give the Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test, the NNAT3, in that October window to every third grader, and to some older students who are new or already approved for another look. A result in the ninth stanine is one required piece of evidence for general intellectual identification. It is not, by itself, a gifted label, an Advance Program seat, or a magnet offer.
A parent, guardian, or school had to email jcpsgifted@jefferson.kyschools.us before September 1, and both Google Forms were due September 15. Testing is still ahead. The request clock for this window is not.
Those dates are on the 2026 to 2027 parent calendar, a Jefferson County Public Schools file created February 12, 2026. The footer marks it as the 2026 to 2027 parent calendar, revision 1.26rj. JCPS Insider checked that file on October 3, 2026.
When does the testing window run?
The calendar does not print one test morning for every school. It prints the district window. Showcase of Schools, for elementary, middle, and high schools, is the next line on that calendar, October 24.
The procedures handbook linked from the JCPS family gifted site says October is when schools administer the NNAT3. The handbook file was created September 30, 2025. The cover does not print a school year. It is the procedure that site was still offering on October 3, 2026.
If your child is in third grade, ask this week whether the child is on the October NNAT3 list and which day inside October 12 through October 23 the school is testing.
The handbook pages used here do not print a make up rule, an opt out line, a date when scores reach the parent, or an accommodations line for the group NNAT3.
Who sits for the October test?
The handbook says the October NNAT3 goes to every third grader.
It also lists students in grades four through eight who are new to the district, do not have an NNAT score, and are not already identified in general intellectual ability. It lists students in those grades whose rescreening was already approved. A fourth grader who missed the NNAT3 window the year before may be considered during this annual window.
The handbook screening list says students accepted through the rescreening process in grades four through twelve. The October timeline says students approved for rescreening in grades four through eight. The rescreen rule says students in grades four through eight may be considered for one rescreening. The late enrollment line sends students who enroll after September 15 to next year. The handbook does not reconcile those lines.
Wilder Elementary's newsletter for the week of August 17, 2026, a week that includes a PTA meeting dated August 17, 2026, tells families the September 1 email and does not mention September 15.
At least one year has to pass before the same cognitive measure is used again for this identification. The handbook says the decision on whether a rescreen is approved is final and is not subject to appeal. That is the decision about another test, not the later decision about identification.
Board policy in the handbook, amended January 24, 2023, requires parent or guardian permission before an individual test that follows up a test given to students in general and is used for formal identification. The handbook does not say families sign a slip before the October group NNAT3. Within ten school days after the identification meeting, the school gifted lead sends a notification and a parent permission form.
An older JCPS gifted plan slide in board records says a test it calls CogAT is given to all third graders. That file does not print a meeting date. The 2025 handbook and the August 2026 Wilder newsletter both name the NNAT3.
What does a ninth stanine score actually do?
It is one required piece, not the decision.
Stanine is the name for a nine band score scale, and the ninth band is the top one. 704 KAR 3:285 says general intellectual ability is determined by a score within the ninth stanine on a full scale comprehensive test of intellectual ability. The handbook repeats that and requires a composite score in the ninth stanine. The posted pages do not give the NNAT3 index or percentile that JCPS will treat as the ninth stanine.
The handbook also requires at least two more pieces. The list includes anecdotal records, behavior checklists, portfolio evidence, observation of advanced reasoning, a primary review committee recommendation for a child entering fourth grade, a parent referral, and awards or critiques. The school committee decides. It includes the principal or a designee, the gifted lead or gifted teacher, classroom teachers, a teacher of students with disabilities, and a counselor. The committee is supposed to reach consensus.
The Kentucky Department of Education gifted page, published September 15, 2026, says formal identification is for grades four through twelve, in general intellectual aptitude, specific academic aptitude, creative or divergent thinking, psychosocial or leadership skills, or visual or performing arts. Identification in one area does not identify the others. KDE questions reprinted in the handbook say a formally identified student stays identified through high school graduation. Services can still change.
If group scores are low and other records show potential, the regulation says the district shall give an individual mental ability test. The handbook tells staff to weigh conditions that can mask ability, including disability, economic disadvantage, underachievement, and race or ethnicity. Policy on the same pages adds multilingual learners. Those are considerations, not a second number.
October is the general intellect window, not the whole identification year. For a specific subject, the handbook looks for a ninth stanine on the most recent two of three MAP, CERT, or SAT10 benchmarks, plus two more pieces. Students in grades five through eight who scored Distinguished on the prior Kentucky Summative Assessment in science or social studies, and who are not already identified in that subject, may take the Stanford Achievement Test 10. The screening table lists creativity screeners for grades three, six, and nine. The November line on the timeline lists creativity screeners for grades six and nine. Leadership is December for grades four and seven. Visual and performing arts screening is for grades five and eight. Nomination in those last three areas waits on permission to evaluate, if permission applies.
Does identification place a child, or get a magnet seat?
The committee chooses services.
The family gifted site says services are available in every JCPS school, including Traditional schools, for students formally identified in grades four through twelve. The written match is a gifted student services plan, the GSSP. The school writes a new one each year. A parent can decline services for the current year, or ask for a change, in writing to the school. A decline has to name the category. The handbook says progress is reported at least once a semester, and it names January and May. The September 30, 2025 handbook says, "Students must have at least two service delivery options for each gifted category." The label itself does not assign the classroom.
Advance Program rules are separate. Policy in the handbook says Advance uses cognitive ability, teacher evaluation, grade point average, exceptional characteristics, and standardized tests, and that those criteria are not the gifted rules. The family comparison page says both can start in fourth grade, that Advance is built on grades and test scores, and that not every Advance student is identified as gifted. A child can be in both only by meeting both. Neither page prints an Advance cutoff.
The 2026 to 2027 Middle School Choices guide, created August 25, 2025, describes Noe Middle's districtwide Gifted and Talented Magnet and says an application is required. It prints no NNAT3 score and no stanine that gets a child in. Some programs ask for work samples or test scores, and the guide says the application is incomplete if that request goes unanswered. A resides school, a magnet school, and a magnet program are not the same application. Noe's gifted program sits inside the school. A seat in the building is not a seat in the program.
The parent calendar lists the next magnet application period as November 2 through December 18, for 2027 to 2028. Heavy interest is not an offer.
What about kindergarten through grade three?
Those grades are the Primary Talent Pool, not formal identification.
The family site says the pool covers kindergarten through grade three in every JCPS elementary school, and that selection does not guarantee formal identification later. The handbook requires at least three pieces of evidence. MAP may be one piece. The state rule copied into the handbook says a formal score must not be used to remove a primary child. It may be used to find a child the informal measures missed. Once selected, the child stays through the end of third grade. Pool students are not automatically identified in fourth grade.
The school sends a Primary Talent Pool letter after selection. The state regulation does not require that letter. JCPS put the notice in its own procedure.
What if the score is low, or you think your child was missed?
Ask the school gifted lead what is in the file. If the committee has already said no, the handbook's path is a written appeal, not a new September email.
For general intellectual ability, the appeal has to document low performance on the full scale test and include at least three examples of exceptional ability in that area. Other areas need at least three examples in the area being appealed. The writing goes to the Gifted and Talented Office and has to say whether the issue is talent pool selection, formal identification, or the services themselves.
The office takes the file to the school committee. The committee answers in writing within ten working days. If it agrees with the family, the child starts after the parent or guardian signs the permission form, or the services plan changes. If it says no, that committee and the supervisor of Gifted and Talented and the Advance Program send a final written decision within ten more working days.
The family site lists the office at jcpsgifted@jefferson.kyschools.us and names Jessie Thompson as supervisor of Gifted and Talented and the Advance Program. It tells parents to start with the school's gifted lead. The handbook does not print an appeal form, a mailing address, or a phone for that office.
If a student in grades four through eight missed the September request dates, the page that is still open is the written appeal after an identification decision. The handbook says the rescreen approval itself cannot be appealed.