OP here. A big THANK YOU to those of you who contributed with substantive answers. You have been extremely helpful - I have a better handle on what to ask my school. FCPS should consider hiring some of you to spruce up their website.

Anonymous wrote:If you are switching your kid OUT of public school and into private school, why do you care about AAP?

AAP is for Fairfax county public school.

OP said switching DC TO public school FROM private.

Level II and III vary by school. Some schools have pull-outs for Level II starting in 1st grade and some have nothing at all. Some include advanced math in Level III and some do not. Just a couple of examples.

If you know that your child will need some level of advanced academics and you know which school you may be transferring to it may be helpful to talk to the AART at the school to get a better idea of what that school has to offer. There will also be an AAP information session provided by the school at the start of the school year that gives a very general breakdown of everything.

There are a few things that are somewhat unique to FCPS.

I think what you need to know is that starting in third grade, some schools have local Level IV AAP and some schools don't, and also some schools contain a Level IV center. Everyone who is admitted has the option to attend a Level IV AAP Center. Those with local Level IV at their base school have two choices - stay at their base school for local level IV or go to the center. If your school doesn't have local level IV, then it's likely that a small portion (around 10-15% of the second grade class) - will leave to go to the Level IV Center starting 3rd grade. If your school has local level IV, it probably varies whether admitted kids stay at base or go to the center.

Level IV is essentially full time AAP. If your child is not in Level IV AAP they could be eligible for Level III and/or theoretically the highest reading group or an advanced math group. I think it varies by school how this all works.

I really have no familiarity with Level II.
At the base school in my neighborhood - Level III is an enrichment pullout with the AART once a week, starting in third grade. Our base school does no pullouts prior to third grade.

I didn't know about AAP when we moved here - my kids were 3 and 1 at the time. Our base does not have Local Level IV and now my oldest is at a Center (my younger ones are in K and preschool). Sometimes I wish I knew about Local level IV before we moved here, so my kids could all be at the same school but overall it would have been way to soon to know about that, at the time we moved in. And I am generally happy with the way things are now that I know more about it.

Two previous posters provided more helpful responses than fcps.edu does.

If you are switching your kid OUT of public school and into private school, why do you care about AAP?

AAP is for Fairfax county public school.

OP, if your kid isn't yet in first grade, then do a little reading about it but here is some 1000 foot info. The testing for AAP begins in first grade. More testing occurs in second and decisions are made during the second grade year. FCPS elementary schools will typically have an AAP meeting in the Fall semester to explain the process. All kids are considered and only some are referred on for further consideration. If they get in, great. If not, you can appeal (but you have to assemble a file of info). The problem is that you may not know if they actually get in until after the appeal is due so many parents appeal just in case.

Now, as the the levels. I believe (I am sure I will be corrected) that the standard curriculum is Level II. That is what the majority of kids get and what you get if you don't "get in" to AAP. Some kids qualify for advanced classes in certain subjects but not all. That is Level III and it is done in your home elementary school. Level IV is when your child has been deemed academically advanced in all areas and then you have a choice. You can stay at your home school and your kid will do academic classes with other AAP kids but may have PE or music with the Level II and Level III kids (known pejoratively as "Gen ed" by a-hole AAP parents). Or, you may be able to go to a "center." A center is a nearby elementary school that has an AAP school within the school and pulls Level IV kids from nearby elementary schools. If you do that, you kid will only be with Level IV kids for everything. Your local school might be a Center in which case you stay. In our area, I have heard that the AAP Level IV at our local school is not as advanced as the Center school. We are not there yet so who knows.

You can also defer. Once you have been admitted to AAP, they cannot take that away so if you got in and then decided to go back to private for a year and then came back, you would still be in.

Anonymous wrote:try reading the FCPS website

That's awesome that you found the FCPS website helpful. I have read it many times and only really found out what Levels II and III were through my DC actually receiving those services. And what I've found is that they mean very little. Sporadic differentiated lessons. That's it. OP - Level IV is full time AAP starting in third grade (the referral/pool process begins in the winter of second grade). There are center schools, which have entire classes dedicated to Level IV AAP students. These kids are selected by a central committee, through the referral/pool process. If your child attends a school that is not a center school but is deemed eligible by the committee for Level IV, you have the option of sending your child to the applicable full-time center school, where your child will be in classes with only other Level IV AAP students. You also have the option of keeping your child at his/her base school, where there are numerous types of local services available. Some base schools have AAP classes that are made up of Level IV students as well as other kids that have been placed in those classes that were not deemed Level IV eligible by the committee. It depends on the base school regarding what they offer. But center schools have classes that are exclusively Level IV AAP students beginning in third grade.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:try reading the FCPS website

Not OP, but it really isn't very helpful to someone who's new to the system.

A different NP: the Fcps website will accurately provide a description. Asking on here for a subjective summary makes no sense.

Anonymous wrote:try reading the FCPS website

Not OP, but it really isn't very helpful to someone who's new to the system.

try reading the FCPS website

Which county?

We are newish to the area and are considering switching our kid to public from private (entering first grade) next year. I am trying to familiarize myself with the have no idea what some of the terminology means - what do levels II, III, and IV mean? And I am very confused by the process - do different schools have different programs available? Some schools do it on site, others bus to a location full of AAP kids from other schools? Which is better do you think? Pretty overwhelmed...