Source: http://www.townhall.virginia.gov/L/ViewXML.cfm?textid=1893
Timestamp: 2019-05-23 01:57:07
Document Index: 135250424

Matched Legal Cases: ['§22', '§1', '§1', '§22', '§2', '§2', '§2', '§22', '§22', '§2', '§2']

6/9/08 3:06 PM [latest] 6/4/08 10:52 AM 5/28/08 3:29 PM 5/28/08 1:33 PM 9/17/07 11:18 AM
8VAC20-40-10
This chapter shall apply to all local school divisions in the Commonwealth, regarding their services for students from kindergarten through high school graduation.
§22.1-16 and 22.1-253.13:1 of the Code of Virginia.
Derived from VR270-01-0002 §1.1, eff. June 25, 1986; amended, Virginia Register Volume 11, Issue 9, eff. February 22, 1995.
8VAC20-40-20
The words and terms, when used in this chapter, shall have the following meanings, unless the content context clearly indicates otherwise:
"Appropriately differentiated curricula" for gifted students refer to curricula designed in response to their cognitive and effective needs. Such curricula provide emphasis on both accelerative and enrichment opportunities for curriculum and instruction" means curriculum and instruction adapted or modified to accommodate the accelerated learning aptitudes of eligible or identified students in their areas of strength. Such curriculum and instructional strategies provide accelerated and enrichment opportunities that recognize gifted students needs for (i) advanced content and pacing of instruction, ; (ii) original research or production, ; (iii) problem finding and solving, ; (iv) higher level thinking that leads to the generation of products, ; and (v) a focus on issues, themes, and ideas within and across areas of study. Such curriculum and instruction are offered continuously and sequentially to support the achievement of student outcomes, and provide support necessary for these students to work at increasing levels of complexity that differ significantly from those of their age-level peers.
"Gifted students" means those students in public elementary, middle, and secondary schools beginning with kindergarten through graduation whose abilities who demonstrate high levels of accomplishment or who show the potential for higher levels of accomplishment when compared to others of the same age, experience, or environment. Their aptitudes and potential for accomplishment are so outstanding that they require special programs to meet their educational needs. These students will be identified by professionally qualified persons through the use of multiple criteria as having potential or demonstrated abilities and who have evidence of high performance capabilities, which may include leadership, aptitudes in one or more of the following areas:
2. Specific academic aptitude. Students with specific aptitudes in selected academic areas: mathematics; the sciences; or the humanities as demonstrated by advanced skills, concepts, and creative expression in those areas. Such students demonstrate or have the potential to demonstrate superior reasoning; persistent intellectual curiosity; advanced use of language; exceptional problem solving; rapid acquisition and mastery of facts, concepts, and principles; and creative and imaginative expression beyond their age-level peers in selected academic areas that include English, history and social science, mathematics, and science.
3. Technical and practical arts Career and technical aptitude. Students with specific aptitudes in selected technical or practical arts as demonstrated by advanced skills and creative expression in those areas to the extent they need and can benefit from specifically planned educational services differentiated from those provided by the general program experience. Such students demonstrate or have the potential to demonstrate superior reasoning; persistent technical curiosity; advanced use of language; exceptional problem solving; rapid acquisition and mastery of facts, concepts, and principles; and creative and imaginative expression beyond their age-level peers in career and technical fields.
"Identification" is means the multistaged process of reviewing student data collected at the screening level and conducting further evaluation of student potential to determine the most qualified students for the specific gifted program available. finding students who are eligible for the division's gifted education program. The identification process begins with a divisionwide screening component that is followed by a referral component, and that concludes with the determination of eligibility by the school division's identification and placement committee. The identification process includes the review of valid and reliable student data based on criteria established and applied consistently by the school division. The process shall include the review of information or data from multiple sources to determine whether a student's aptitudes and learning needs are most appropriately served through the school division's gifted education program.
"Referral" means the formal and direct process that parents, teachers, professionals, or students use to request that a kindergarten through twelfth-grade student be assessed for gifted education program services.
"Screening" is the process of creating the pool of potential candidates using multiple criteria through the referral process, review of test data, or from other sources. Screening is the active search for students who should be evaluated for identification means the divisionwide search each school division conducts at least once annually across all its students to determine which students should be referred for identification and service in the gifted education program. The annual screening shall, at a minimum, consist of a review of current assessment data for all kindergarten through twelfth-grade students. Students selected through the school division's screening process are then referred for formal identification.
"Service options" include means the instructional approach or approaches, setting or settings, and staffing selected for the delivery of appropriate service or services that are based on student needs programs provided to eligible students based on their assessed needs in their areas of strength.
Derived from VR270-01-0002 §1.2, eff. June 25, 1986; amended, Virginia Register Volume 11, Issue 9, eff. February 22, 1995.
8VAC20-40-30
§§22.1-16 and 22.1-253.13:1 of the Code of Virginia.
Derived from VR270-01-0002 §2.1, eff. June 25, 1986; amended, Virginia Register Volume 11, Issue 9, eff. February 22, 1995; repealed, Volume 24, Issue 21, 2008.
8VAC20-40-40
8VAC20-40-40. Identification Screening, referral, identification, and placement.
A. Each school division shall establish a uniform procedure with common criteria procedures for screening, referral, and identification of general intellectual or specific academic aptitude gifted students. If the school division elects to identify students with specific academic aptitudes, they it shall include procedures for identification and service in, at a minimum, English, history and social science, mathematics, and science, and humanities. These procedures will permit referrals from school personnel, parents or legal guardians, other persons of related expertise, peer referral and self-referral of those students believed to be gifted. Pertinent information, records, and other performance evidence of referred students will be examined by a building level or division level identification committee. Further, the committee or committees will determine the eligibility of the referred students for differentiated programs. Students who are found to be eligible by the Identification/Placement Committee shall be offered a differentiated program by the school division. School divisions may identify and serve gifted students in career and technical aptitude or visual and performing arts aptitude, or both, at their discretion.
B. Each school division shall maintain a division review procedure for students whose cases are appealed. This procedure shall involve individuals, the majority of whom did not serve on the Identification/Placement Committee. These uniform procedures shall include a screening process that requires instructional personnel to review, at a minimum, current assessment data on each kindergarten through twelfth-grade student annually. Some data used in the screening process may be incorporated into multiple criteria reviewed by the identification and placement committee to determine eligibility, but those data shall not replace norm-referenced aptitude test data.
C. These uniform procedures shall permit referrals from school personnel, parents or legal guardians, or other persons of related expertise, as well as peer or self-referral. Such referrals shall be accepted for kindergarten through twelfth-grade students.
D. An identification and placement committee shall review pertinent information, records, and other performance evidence for referred students. The committee shall include a professional who knows the child, as well as classroom teachers, assessment specialists, gifted program staff, school administrators, or others with credentials or experience in gifted education. The committee shall (i) review data from multiple sources selected and used consistently within the division to assess students aptitudes in the areas of giftedness the school division serves, (ii) determine whether a student is eligible for the divisions services, and (iii) determine which of the school divisions service options match the learning needs of the eligible student. The committee may review valid and reliable data administered by another division for a transfer student who has been identified previously.
1. Identification of students for the gifted education program shall be based on multiple criteria established by the school division and designed to seek out those students with superior aptitudes, including students for whom accurate identification may be affected because they are economically disadvantaged, have limited English proficiency, or have a disability. Data shall include scores from valid and reliable instruments that assess students potential for advanced achievement, as well as instruments that assess demonstrated advanced skills, conceptual knowledge, and problem-solving aptitudes.
2. Valid and reliable data for each referred student shall be examined by the building-level or division-level identification and placement committee. The committee shall determine the eligibility of each referred student for the school divisions gifted education program. Students who are found eligible by the identification and placement committee shall be offered programs or courses with appropriately differentiated curriculum and instruction by the school division.
3. The identification process used by each school division must ensure that no single criterion is used to determine a students eligibility. The identification process shall include at least three measures from the following categories:
e. Individually administered or group-administered, norm-referenced aptitude tests;
4. If a program is designed to address general intellectual aptitude or specific academic aptitude, an individually administered or group-administered, norm-referenced aptitude test shall be included as one of the three measures used in the school divisions identification procedure.
5. If a program is designed to address either the visual and performing arts or career and technical aptitude, a portfolio or other performance assessment measure in the specific aptitude area shall be included as part of the data reviewed by the identification and placement committee.
E. Within 60 business days of the receipt of a referral, the identification and placement committee shall determine the eligibility status of each student referred for the divisions gifted education program and notify the parent or guardian of its decision. If a student is identified as gifted and eligible for services, the identification and placement committee shall determine which service options most effectively meet the assessed learning needs of the student. Identified gifted students shall be offered placement in a classroom or program setting that provides:
Derived from VR270-01-0002 §2.2, eff. June 25, 1986; amended, Virginia Register Volume 11, Issue 9, eff. February 22, 1995.
8VAC20-40-50
Derived from VR270-01-0002 §2.3, eff. June 25, 1986; amended, Virginia Register Volume 11, Issue 9, eff. February 22, 1995.
8VAC20-40-55
B. Each school division shall adopt a review procedure for students whose cases are appealed. This procedure shall involve a committee, the majority of whose members did not serve on the initial identification and placement committee, and shall inform parents or legal guardians, in writing, of the appeal process. Requests filed by parents or legal guardians to appeal any action of the identification and placement committee shall be filed within 10 business days of receipt of notification of the action by the division. The process shall include an opportunity to meet with an administrator to discuss the decision.
1. A parent or legal guardian of a student who was referred but not identified by the identification and placement committee as eligible for services in the school division's gifted education program shall be informed, in writing, within 10 business days, of the school division's process to appeal the committee's decision.
§22.1-16 and 22.1-18.1 of the Code of Virginia.
A. Each school division board shall submit to the Department of Education for approval a review and approve annually a comprehensive plan for the education of gifted students that includes the components identified in these regulations. Modifications to the plan shall be reported to the Department of Education on dates specified by the department. The development process for the school divisions local plan for the education of the gifted shall include opportunities for public review of the school divisions plan. The approved local plan shall be accessible through the school divisions website and the school division shall ensure that printed copies of the comprehensive plan are available to citizens who do not have online access. The plan shall include the following components as follow:
1. A statement of philosophy for the gifted education program;
2. A statement of the school divisions gifted education program goals and objectives for identification, delivery of services, curriculum and instruction, personnel preparation, and parent and community involvement;
3. Procedures for the early and on-going screening, referral, identification and placement of gifted students;, beginning with kindergarten through secondary graduation twelfth-grade in at least one of the four defined areas of giftedness; a general intellectual or a specific academic aptitude program; and, if provided in the school division, procedures for the screening, referral, identification, and placement of gifted students in visual and performing arts or career and technical aptitude programs;
7. Assurances that (i) testing and evaluation assessment materials selected and administered are sensitive to free of cultural, racial, and linguistic differences, biases; (ii) identification procedures are constructed so that they those procedures may identify high potential/ability in all underserved culturally diverse, low socio-economic, and disabled populations, high potential or aptitude in any student whose accurate identification may be affected by economic disadvantages, by limited English proficiency, or by disability; (iii) standardized tests and other measures have been validated for the specific purpose for which they are used purpose of identifying gifted students; and (iv) instruments are administered and interpreted by a trained personnel in conformity with the developers instructions of their producer;
8. Assurances that accommodations or modifications determined by the school divisions special education Individual Education Plan (IEP) team, as required for the student to receive a free appropriate public education, shall be incorporated into the students gifted education services;
9. Assurances that a written copy of the school divisions approved local plan for the education of the gifted is available to parents or legal guardians of each referred student, and to others upon request;
10. Evidence that gifted education service options from kindergarten through twelfth grade are offered continuously and sequentially, with instructional time during the school day and week to (i) work with their age-level peers, (ii) work with their intellectual and academic peers, (iii) work independently; and (iv) foster intellectual and academic growth of gifted students. Parents and legal guardians shall receive assessment of each gifted students intellectual and academic growth;
11. A description of the school divisions program of differentiated curriculum and instruction demonstrating accelerated and advanced content within programs or courses;
12. Polices and procedures that allow access to programs of study and advanced courses at a pace and sequence commensurate with their learning needs;
13. Evidence that school divisions provide professional development based on the competencies specified in 8VAC20-542-310, Gifted education (add-on endorsement), for instructional personnel who deliver services within the gifted education program; and
14. Procedures for the annual evaluation of the effectiveness of the school division's gifted education program, including review of student outcomes and the intellectual and academic growth of gifted students. Such evaluations shall be based on multiple criteria and shall include multiple sources of information for gifted students.
§22.1-16, 22.1-253.13:1, and 22.1-18.1 of the Code of Virginia.
Derived from VR270-01-0002 §2.4, eff. June 25, 1986; amended, Virginia Register Volume 11, Issue 9, eff. February 22, 1995.
8VAC20-40-70
State funds administered by the Department of Education for the education of gifted students shall be used to support only those activities identified in the school division's plan as approved by the Board of Education.
Derived from VR270-01-0002 §2.5, eff. June 25, 1986; amended, Virginia Register Volume 11, Issue 9, eff. February 22, 1995.