I support Virginia DOE oversight of every school division's plan for gifted education to ensure that all divisions adhere to minimum state standards for identification of and programming for gifted students.

Further, DOE funds for gifted programs must be restricted for that purpose and not be available to local school divisions to use at their discretion. Funding for gifted education is often redirected to other pressing school division needs at times of budgetary short-falls. Gov. Kaine has required all state agencies to provide 2 or more budgets to address expected lack of revenue. The proposed code changes suggest the DOE's willingness to allow local divisions to reduce services to gifted students when it is financially expedient to do so.

It also seems that local one year plans for the gifted would be quite costly and administratively burdensome to develop and implement. Have 5 year plans been lacking? I support longer range plans with annual local advisory review.

Thank you,

Carolyn Cockrell