II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 505

To give gifted and talented students the opportunity to develop their

capabilities.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MARCH 2, 1999

Mr. GRASSLEY introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred

to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

A BILL

To give gifted and talented students the opportunity to

develop their capabilities.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Gifted and Talented

5 Students Education Act of 1999’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.

7 (a) FINDINGS.—The Congress makes the following

8 findings:

9 (1) Gifted and talented students give evidence

10 of high performance capability in specific academic
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1 fields, or in areas such as intellectual, creative, artis2 tic, or leadership capacity, and require services or

3 activities not ordinarily provided by a school in order

4 to fully develop such capabilities. Gifted and talented

5 students are from all cultural, racial, and ethnic

6 backgrounds, and socioeconomic groups. Some such

7 students have disabilities and for some, English is

8 not their first language. Many students from such

9 diverse backgrounds have been historically underrep10 resented in gifted education programs.

11 (2) Because gifted and talented students gen12 erally are more advanced academically, are able to

13 learn more quickly and study in more depth and

14 complexity than others their age, the students have

15 special educational needs that require opportunities

16 and experiences that are different from those gen17 erally available in regular education programs.

18 (3) Parents and families are essential partners

19 to schools in developing appropriate educational

20 services for gifted and talented students. They need

21 access to information, research and support regard22 ing the characteristics of gifted children and their

23 educational and social and emotional needs, as well

24 as information on available strategies and resources

25 for education in State and local communities.
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1 (4) There currently is no Federal requirement

2 to identify or serve the Nation’s approximately

3 3,000,000 gifted and talented students.

4 (5) While some States and school districts allo5 cate resources to educate gifted and talented stu6 dents, others do not. Additionally, State laws and

7 State and local funding, identification, and account8 ability mechanisms vary widely, resulting in a vast

9 disparity of services for this special-needs popu10 lation.

11 (6) If the United States is to compete success12 fully in the global economy, it is important that

13 more students achieve to higher levels, and that

14 highly capable students receive an education that

15 prepares them to perform the most highly innovative

16 and creative work that is necessary in today’s work17 place.

18 (7) The performance of twelfth-grade advanced

19 students in the United States on the Third Inter20 national Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS)

21 was among the lowest in the world. In each of 5

22 physics content areas in the study and in each of 3

23 math content areas in the study, the performance of

24 physics and advanced mathematics students in the
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1 United States was among the lowest of participating

2 countries.

3 (8) Elementary school students that are gifted

4 and talented have already mastered 35 to 50 percent

5 of the material covered in a school year in several

6 subject areas before the school year begins.

7 (9) In 1990, fewer than 2 cents out of every

8 $100 spent on elementary and secondary education

9 in the United States was devoted to providing chal10 lenging programming for the Nation’s gifted and tal11 ented students.

12 (b) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this Act is to provide

13 grants to States to support programs, classes, and other

14 services designed to meet the needs of the Nation’s gifted

15 and talented students in elementary and secondary

16 schools.

17 SEC. 3. PROGRAM AUTHORIZATION AND ACTIVITIES.

18 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary is authorized to

19 provide grants to States for use by public schools to de20 velop or expand gifted and talented education programs

21 and to provide direct educational services and materials

22 through 1 or more of the following activities:

23 (1) PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PRO24 GRAMS.—States may expend funds to develop and

25 implement programs to address State and local
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1 needs for inservice training programs for general

2 educators, specialists in gifted and talented edu3 cation, administrators, school counselors, or other

4 personnel at the elementary and secondary levels.

5 (2) TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.—A State may

6 make materials and services available through State

7 regional education service centers, universities, col8 leges, or other entities.

9 (3) PROGRAMS AND SERVICES.—

10 (A) DIRECT SERVICES AND MATERIALS.—

11 States may expend funds to provide direct edu12 cational services and materials to gifted and tal13 ented students. Strategies developed with such

14 funds may include curriculum compacting,

15 modified or adapted curriculum, acceleration,

16 independent study, and dual enrollment.

17 (B) INNOVATIVE APPROACHES.—States

18 may support innovative approaches and curric19 ula used by school districts, individual schools,

20 or consortia of schools or school districts.

21 (4) EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES.—States may

22 provide funds to provide challenging, high-level

23 course work to individual students or groups of stu24 dents in schools and school districts that do not have

25 the resources to otherwise provide the courses
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1 through new and emerging technologies, including

2 distance learning. Funds may be used to develop

3 curriculum packages, compensate distance-learning

4 educators, or for other relevant purposes, but may

5 not be used for the purchase or upgrading of techno6 logical hardware.

7 (b) STATE INFRASTRUCTURE COSTS.—

8 (1) ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS.—Not more than

9 10 percent of the total amount received under this

10 Act may be used for State educational agency ad11 ministrative costs, such as—

12 (A) facilitating the coordination of gifted

13 and talented education programs and services;

14 (B) disseminating information and mate15 rials to teachers and parents;

16 (C) creating State gifted education advi17 sory boards; and

18 (D) administering funds received under

19 this Act.

20 (2) EDUCATION AND SUPPORT.—Not more than

21 2 percent of the total amount received under this

22 Act may be used by a State to provide information,

23 education, and support to parents and caregivers of

24 gifted and talented children to enhance their ability

25 to participate in decisions regarding their children’s
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1 educational programs. Such education shall be devel2 oped and carried out by parents and caregivers or by

3 parents and caregivers in partnership with the State.

4 SEC. 4. APPLICATION.

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—To be eligible to receive a grant

6 under this Act, a State educational agency shall submit

7 an application to the Secretary at such time, in such man8 ner, and accompanied by such information as the Sec9 retary may reasonably require.

10 (b) CONTENTS.—The application described in sub11 section (a) shall include assurances that—

12 (1) funds received under this Act shall be used

13 to identify and support gifted and talented students,

14 including students from all economic, ethnic, and ra15 cial backgrounds, students of limited English pro16 ficiency, students with disabilities, and highly gifted

17 students;

18 (2) not less than 88 percent of the funds re19 ceived by the State will be distributed to public

20 schools within the State;

21 (3) funds received under this Act shall be used

22 only to supplement, but not supplant, the amount of

23 State and local funds expended for the specialized

24 education and related services provided for the edu25 cation of gifted and talented students; and
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1 (4) the State shall develop and implement pro2 gram assessment models to evaluate educational ef3 fectiveness and ensure program accountability.

4 (c) APPROVAL.—The Secretary shall approve an ap5 plication of a State educational agency if such application

6 meets the requirements of this section.

7 SEC. 5. ALLOTMENT TO STATES.

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection

9 (b), of the total amount made available to carry out this

10 Act for a fiscal year, the Secretary shall award to each

11 State an amount that bears the same relation to the total

12 amount as the number of children ages 5 through 18 in

13 the State for the preceding academic year bears to the

14 total number of all such children in all States for such

15 year.

16 (b) MINIMUM AWARD.—

17 (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in para18 graph (2), each State that meets the requirements

19 of this Act shall receive not less than $1,000,000 for

20 the fiscal year involved.

21 (2) RATABLE REDUCTION.—If the amount

22 made available to carry out this Act for a fiscal year

23 is insufficient to allocate the amount specified in

24 paragraph (1) to each State, the allocation shall be

25 ratably reduced for each State.
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1 SEC. 6. REPORTING.

2 Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment

3 of this Act and for each subsequent year thereafter, the

4 State educational agency shall submit an annual report

5 to the Secretary that describes the number of students

6 served and the activities supported with funds provided

7 under this Act. The report shall include a description of

8 the measures taken to comply with the accountability re9 quirements of section 4.

10 SEC. 7. DEFINITIONS.

11 In this Act:

12 (1) GIFTED AND TALENTED.—The term ‘‘gifted

13 and talented’’ has the meaning given such term

14 under applicable State law or as such term is de15 fined by the State or local educational agency in16 volved, or in the case of a State that does not have

17 a law that defines the term and the State or local

18 educational agency has not defined the term, the

19 term has the meaning given such term under section

20 14101(16) of the Elementary and Secondary Edu21 cation Act (20 U.S.C. 8801(16)).

22 (2) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means

23 the Secretary of Education.

24 (3) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of

25 the 50 States and the District of Columbia.
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1 (4) STATE EDUCATIONAL AGENCY.—The term

2 ‘‘State educational agency’’ has the meaning given

3 the term under section 14101(28) of the Elementary

4 and Secondary Education Act (20 U.S.C. 8801(28)).

5 SEC. 8. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATION.

6 There is authorized to be appropriated $160,000,000

7 for each of fiscal years 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004

8 to carry out this Act.

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