Criteria
While all children have gifts, not all meet the definition of gifted (high ability). The Apogee School is designed to serve the unique social, emotional, and academic needs of gifted children. We define gifted as having an IQ in the top 2-3% of the population or around 1 in 40. Not everyone has access to a documented IQ, and there are factors that can make an IQ test skew low, so we look at a wide range of evidence to determine whether a child would benefit from the program and pace the Apogee School offers.
The second thing we look for is a good fit with the culture of our school. Gifted children already have nervous systems that are on high alert, so it’s important to enroll classmates who can work within a physically and emotionally safe environment.
Gifted Evidence
When you apply to the Apogee School, we will ask you to provide evidence that your child is gifted. This could include one or more of the following:
- Documented IQ 125 or higher (COGAT, WISC-V, etc.)
- Currently qualified/enrolled in another gifted program or school
- One or more biological parent or sibling has been identified as gifted
- NWEA score in 97th percentile in one or more areas
- Working one or more grade levels ahead in one or more subjects
- Parent or teacher observation
- Other evidence not listed here
We want to hear your story and see if an Apogee education is a great fit for your child.
The first part of the tour is meeting with the Head of School to learn about your journey and tell you about our program. We go over the basics of what our school offers, our philosophy, financial aid, and address any questions you may have.
The second part of the tour is to visit the actual classrooms so you can see for yourself what the day to day experience looks like for our students.
We prefer that your child attends so we can get to know them and see how they respond to our environment.
Tours typically last about an hour, but you’re welcome to stay as long as you’d like to observe and have your questions answered.
Click on This Link to request a tour.
Before we can schedule a shadow day, we need to gather some basic information.
We require two prior teachers to fill out an online reference form. Please email the link to those teachers.
Please email office@apogeeschool.org to request a shadow day.
We will contact you to schedule a shadow day if we have openings and your child meets our admissions criteria.
Your child will be an Apogee student for at least 3 consecutive days so they can determine if our environment is where they’d like to be a student. This time also allows us to get to know your child and how they interact with our community and curriculum.
After your shadow day, the teacher(s) will fill out a shadow evaluation form. Our team will meet to arrive at a decision.
- Your child is clearly a good fit and we can offer admissions right away if there are openings.
- We have a few concerns or questions to ask first, but we’d like to give it a try.
- We think your child has the potential to be an Apogee student, but we feel they need to reach a growth or maturity milestone first. We encourage you to work on these skills and apply again next year.
- We do not believe your child would benefit from our program. The most common reasons for this decision are behavioral or don’t meet our definition of gifted.
All new student contracts have a 60 day clause where either party can pull out for any reason without penalty.
We need to collect some final details before enrollment.
You will be asked for an email address. A link will be sent to create a portal account.
To qualify for financial aid, you will need to upload income documentation that shows Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) for the most recent year and household size.
Congratulations! You’ve made it! Before you sign the contract, it’s important that you double check the details on the summary page of the contract. Did we give you all of the discounts you’re entitled to?
A few things to be aware of on the contract:
- There is a 60 day clause for new students to allow either party to pull out without penalty if it just isn’t working out. We prefer to fix things, so please let us know ahead of time if we aren’t meeting your expectations. We’ll also work with you if we are seeing any challenges on our side. On day 61 the contract automatically becomes binding for the remainder of the school year. This is so we can honor our contracts for our teachers.
- If you break the contract after day 60, the Board of Directors will make a final decision on how to handle the remaining tuition due. It’s important that you work with them. If you don’t communicate with them, they generally vote that you owe the remainder of tuition.
- If you are receiving financial aid through vouchers, the state will prorate to the day and stop payments to us if you leave early. If that’s the case, the responsibility of paying the remainder of tuition will fall on you.
