Now in my thirteenth year in gifted education, I have seen many changes in the approach to identification and the delivery of services to gifted students.  I can say with confidence that the proposed changes in legislation will result in significant and damaging setbacks. 

Requiring 60 days for an identification decision to be made following referral will make very difficult if not impossible the footwork required for the collection and consideration of multiple criteria for identification of gifted students.  Relying on local school boards to oversee gifted plans will be failing to accept the necessity of a sophisticated understanding of the needs of gifted students when decisions about these plans are made.  Creating vague guidelines about how funding for the gifted is to be spent will surely further marginalize the needs for specialized services when political pressures are applied. 

In recent years I have taken many online courses with national participation.  I have frequently been stunned by the lack of funding and services for gifted education in many cases across the country and the absence of services all together in others.  Adopting the proposed changes would certainly set the state of Virginia back many years and likely put us at risk of joining many states in the country that seem to give no value at all to the special needs of the gifted. 

We must be mindful not to undo the progress that our state has made to date with regard to gifted services and look instead to how we might continue to build upon this very important work.