Last time, we talked about who sits on the committee that makes the determination of a student’s gifted eligibility. But, what do they do? The Identification/Placement Committee has two main functions (I bet you can guess what they are from the title of this committee 😊):
- to determine gifted program eligibility (also called “identification”), and
- to determine placement in gifted services that match the student’s academic needs (or arts needs, or creativity needs, or whatever gifted programs are offered in the division).
Usually, the gifted staff member assigned to the committee facilitates the meeting. She or he presents the data on the reporting sheet to the committee and discusses any pertinent information that the committee should know. Then, the team deliberates. Sometimes, the data presents itself in such a way that the student clearly meets the identification criteria, so no deliberation is needed. Sometimes, students have data that borders the eligibility criteria, so a deeper dive into the student’s data or situation must be explored. Even when a student meets none of the gifted eligibility criteria, committees should still make sure that they haven’t overlooked any information pertinent to the student’s potential giftedness. Sometimes committees decide that they need to collect more data on the student, and ask the parents for permission to postpone the decision until it’s collected.
After the determination (also called “decision”) has been made for the referred student, then the committee must determine which of the offered gifted services in the school match the student’s needs. For example, if there is a gifted math class and a gifted English class offered in the school (services), and the student’s data only supports giftedness in math, then the student would be placed in the gifted math class. Just a reminder- I’m only discussing academic gifted identification in this series. There are other types of gifted programs (ex. Visual Arts, Creativity, Dance, etc.).
No matter what the determination is, the parent must be notified in writing of the determination and any services that will be provided (if applicable). The letter should be mailed home as a matter of confidentiality. For students identified as eligible for gifted services, school divisions require the parent to sign a permission slip and return it to the school. Often, the division may send home a gifted program brochure or handbook for parents, as well. What if the parent disagrees with the determination (this typically only happens when students are not found gifted eligible)? Legally, what can a parent do? In my next post, I will talk about the Appeals process.
Do Gifted Eligibility Committees in your school division run the same as I described? Share your experience with these committees with us in the comments!
Teaching for Talent 