I do not support the proposed changes in the Regulations for Gifted Education.  In this time of "No Child Left Behind" and "Every Child Can Learn," I am afraid that my two gifted children are being left behind and have already learned the minimum standards as defined by the VA SOLs.  As many school struggle to become "Schools of Excellence," they have focused their time, talent and funding on helping the students who have not met the standards, do so.  This is often done at the expense of the gifted students who have already mastered this curriculum.  Don't all students deserve to be challenged and learn something new each day?

The proposed changes to the gifted regulations worry me in that the responsibility for maintaining and funding a challenging and quality gifted program will be removed from the state and placed in the hands of local school boards who might feel pressure to use gifted resources and funding for competing priorities due to the mindset that "gifted students have already met that standard and don't need our help," or "gifted students are smart and can learn it on their own, so they do not need our help."  If special education or ESOL education has the support of state legislation, shouldn't gifted education as well?

As a gifted education resource teacher, I am personally concerned with the change from a five year gifted plan to a one year gifted plan.  A five year plan allows for the development of long term goals; while a one year plan could only deal with immediate and short term goals.  Creating a gifted plan is time consuming.  If this has to be done on a yearly basis, won't we always be writing the plan and never get to see the plan come to life?  Will a one year plan be specific and comprehensive enough to have power, or will it become a meaningless exercise in futility?

Please do not allow our gifted students to be left behind.  They deserve to be enriched and challenged on a daily basis.  Intelligence not nurtured will never be realized.

Thank you.