This paper tackles the identification of exceptional pupils in French-speaking minority schools in Ontario (Canada). On the basis of data collected for the research project “Social and academic trajectories of exceptional pupils in French-speaking primary schools in Ontario’’, the main objective is to understand how Identification, Placement and Review Committees operate and associate parents to decision-making. The exploitation of observation data and interviews helps highlight the debates, discussions and negotiations around the identification of pupils regarded as exceptional. The methodology chosen is based on understanding human activity and takes the complexity of social interactions into account. One particular case of identification is staged.