As readers who've contributed to our comments can attest, myriad questions persist regarding gifted and talented program placement for rising kindergarten and 1st grade students. This is the second year the Department of Education has administered the process, which had previously been managed by individual districts and schools.

First, for those who have not, at this late date, received word on their child's placement status, Andy Jacob of the DOE provided an email address, giftedandtalented@schools.nyc.gov, as the best point of contact. Telephone calls and actual visits are less welcome, it seems, than email -- despite the experiences of many parents whose emails have gone missing or remained unanswered. Some parents have had success by calling the individual schools to which they applied, and asking for information on their child's placement status. It's not the way it's supposed to work, and it's labor- and time-intensive, but it's working, in some cases.

Andy Jacob also asked that we clarify that there are NO wait lists for G&T programs or schools. This is the DOE's policy, and differs substantially from past years when the schools and the districts administered their own admissions. "There are no wait lists," he wrote in an email message. "Students get only one placement, and if they reject that placement, they do not get another one."<!--more-->

Some students who did not receive placement offers on the first round -- children who qualified for G&T but who were not seated, either because the programs they listed were filled or because they didn't list all district G&T programs on their application -- "might" (according to Jacob) be offered a seat at a district school whose G&T program hasn't filled, due to low acceptances or unanticipated attrition. Simply put, kids who didn't get an offer this month might get one over the summer.  "There is no guarantee that a student ... will be considered for any particular program," Jacob wrote, "or for any program at all." Students who did receive an offer should accept or decline that offer in the knowledge that no other G&T offer or placement alternative will be made. We don't have specifics (yet) on how many summer offers were made last year, or how many offers were ultimately accepted.

We are troubled by reports of high-scoring kids not being placed in both citywide and district G&T programs, and are trying to get answers as to why many top scorers were possibly excluded. We are also looking for guidance on why the DOE placed some students in schools they didn't rank on their applications, and why more seats were offered than some schools have have space to provide. In one case, 70 placement offers were extended for a school's 50 G&T kindergarten seats. We've also asked the DOE for recommendations for parents who are out of town and cannot register their children this week.

We'll stay on it and post new information whenever we learn more.  We sincerely wish the process were easier and less fraught for all of New York City's children and the parents who love them.

Parents of rising 2nd and 3rd graders , take note: the DOE reports that G&T letters for those grades will be sent to families on Friday, July 3.