New State Gifted Rules

For the last two years or so, the Tennessee Department of Education has had a Task Force working on new eligibility and evaluation rules for gifted education. A draft set of rules was submitted to the State Board of Education for approval last August, but passage has been delayed by concerns raised by the Tennessee Association of Administrators of Special Education (TAASE).

On March 1, the Department of Education hosted a meeting attended by members of TAASE, the Tennessee Association for the Gifted (TAG), and TIGER, as well as a State Board member, State Board staff, and Department staff to try and resolve outstanding issues. Considerable progress was made, with TAASE, TAG, and TIGER coming to a shared agreement on language in two key areas:

-1- Modifying/amending the definition of “Adverse Affects” so that it makes sense for gifted students. For all areas of Special Education, services are only provided when there is evidence of an adverse affect, and the current rule has been used by some districts to deny services to gifted students who are making no progress in school so long as they are getting “A’s” and “B’s.” The proposed language would read: “For intellectually gifted students, “Adverse Affect” means the general curriculum alone is inadequate to appropriately meet the student’s educational needs.”

-2- Adding language to require that at least one school staff member attending an evaluation meeting (whether the regular classroom teacher, school psychologist, or special education teacher) have training in the characteristics of gifted children.

It is anticipated that these and the rest of the rules revisions will be back before the Tennessee State Board of Education at its next meeting, scheduled for April 20.