WHEREAS, The Fairfax County Council of PTAs acknowledges Fairfax County Public School’s focus on academic achievement for all students, and  

WHEREAS, The FCCPTA recognizes that “all” includes students with accelerated learning aptitudes, and

WHEREAS, The FCCPTA seeks to increase meaningful, regular and two-way communication between the FCCPTA and FCPS, Local Units and parents, and

WHEREAS, The FCCPTA seeks to make School Board and FCPS advisory committees more interactive with more parental input;

The GT Committee of the FCCPTA recommends the following changes to the proposed revision of Regulations Governing Educational Services for Gifted Students:

8VAC20-40-20. Definitions

“Service options” means the instructional approaches, settings and staffing selected for the delivery of appropriate service or services provided to eligible students based on their assessed needs in their areas of strengths. 

8VAC20-40-40 Screening, referral, identification, and placement

Paragraph A: Each school division shall establish uniform procedures for screening, referral and identification of general intellectual and specific academic aptitude gifted students in at a minimum, English, history and social sciences, mathematics and science.  Each school division shall establish uniform procedures for screening referral and identification of students in career and technical aptitude or visual or performing arts aptitude or both. 

Paragraph B.  These uniform procedures shall include a screening process that requires instructional personnel to review, at a minimum, current assessment data on each kindergarten through twelfth grade student annually.  Some data used in the screening process may be incorporated into multiple criteria reviewed by the identification and placement committee to determine eligibility, but those data shall not replace nationally norm-referenced aptitude or nationally norm-referenced achievement tests or the Discrepancy Model.

Paragraph D. An identification and placement committee shall review pertinent information, records and other performance evidence for referred students.  The committee shall include a professional who knows the child, as well as classroom teachers, assessment specialists, gifted program staff, school administrators, or others with credential or experience in gifted education.  The committee shall (i) review data from multiple sources selected and used consistently within the division to assess students’ aptitudes in the areas of giftedness the school division serves, (ii) determine whether a student is eligible for the division’s gifted education services and (iii) determine which of the school division’s gifted education services match the learning needs of the eligible student.

3.e   Individually administered or group-administered nationally norm-referenced aptitude tests,

4. If a program is designed to address general intellectual aptitude or specific academic aptitude, an individually administered or group-administered nationally norm-referenced aptitude test shall be included as one of the three measures used in the school division’s identification procedure.

Paragraph E......Identified gifted students shall be offered placement in classroom or program setting that

            1 Provides appropriately differentiated curriculum and direct instruction provided by professional instructional personnel trained to work with gifted students, and

            2. Monitors and assesses student outcomes, and reports that information to parents and legal guardians

8VAC20-40-60. Local plan, local advisory committee, and annual report.

A.  Each school division shall submit to the Department of Education for approval a 5 year comprehensive local plan for the education of gifted student that includes the components identified in these regulations.  Each school division shall submit to the Department of Education for review and approval annually an assessment of the division’s local plan for the education of gifted students.   The development process for the school division’s local plan for the education of the gifted and its annual assessment shall include opportunities for public input and input from the division’s local advisory committee on gifted education.  The approved local plan shall be accessible through the school division’s website and the school division shall ensure that printed copies of the comprehensive plan are available to citizens who do not have online access.  The plan shall include the following components:

A.14 Procedures for the annual evaluation of the effectiveness of the school division’s gifted education program, including review of student outcomes and the intellectual and academic growth of gifted students.  Such evaluations shall be based on multiple criteria and shall include multiple sources of information for gifted students including above grade-level testing results and nationally norm-referenced aptitude tests.

8VAC20-40-70 Funding

State fund administered by the Department of Education for the education of gifted students shall be used to support only those activities identified in the school division’s local plan as approved by the Board of Education.  Each division shall publish an annual report on expenditures related to the gifted program, including information for each school providing gifted services.