On behalf of the Powhatan County Public Schools I would like to express concerns regarding the proposed revisions to the regulations governing gifted education, and ask that these regulations not be approved by the Board of Education as written.  The Board of Education should instead review the revisions and recommendations of the Virginnia Association for Gifted, the Virginia Advisiory Committee for the Education of the Gifted and the Consortium of Gifted Education Administrators in addition to aligning them with the current research-based best practices in the field of gifted education as developed and relased by the National Association for Gifted Children in the Pre-K - Grade 12 Gifted Program Studies (1998).  The Board of Education should also include the stakeholders and experts in the field of gifted education affiliated with our institutes of higher education in the revision process.

It has been through the Board of Education's commitment and support of gifted education in the Commonwealth that Virginia's programs of service for the gifted have maintained a standard of excellence that is equitable throughout Virginia.  The review process is essential to new program coordinators who have been tasked with preparing their local plans with little or no experience.  This process along with the approval of VDOE signifies the adherance to the best researched practices in gifted education that local school boards may not have the expertise to ensure.  Eliminating the peer review and VDOE approval processes threatens the standards for gifted services which our students and parents have come to expect.

Additionally, the current regulations assure that available funds are to "be used to support only those activities identified in the school division's plan."  The absences of this regulatory language protecting the funding for gifted program services in the proposed regulations may allow school divisions to reduce or redirect monetary support for gifted education and should be reinstated in the regulations.