Oxbridge has an interview system to identify bright pupils.

The school has a duty (which rests with the governors) to identify pupils with special educational needs and to ensure that appropriate provision is made.

They called for forming psychological teams that would begin as early as kindergarten to identify vulnerable pupils.

Sir Alan's report, which looked at the link between behaviour and special educational needs, found that while many schools showed "exemplary practice in identifying pupils" with learning and emotional problems.

The state Board of Regents does not mandate programs for the gifted as it does for the disabled, but it does recommend that school districts identify such pupils and provide them with "an education appropriate to their needs."

The dominant approach to behaviour problems in schools is based on identifying and categorizing individual pupils with a view to removing some of them from mainstream schools.

Mr. Sincaglia says that 100 percent of Nutley's middle school students passed the state's early-warning tests, which are given to identify pupils who need special help.

Jerry Russo, Chancellor Klein's press secretary, said the new plan would include efforts to identify struggling pupils as early as kindergarten and first grade and provide them with intensive help.

Now it is entirely possible many of the schools I looked at do not begin identifying pupils until their final year, or it just happens the remaining years are genuinely in less need.

Moreover, they said, "schools need to be able to identify individual pupils in order to maintain good order and identify intruders easily."