According to the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, only 38 states mandate special services for gifted youth. Among those states, 4 provide full funding, 24 provide partial funding, and 9 states provide no funding for their mandates1.
New York is one of only eight states that neither funds nor mandates gifted education. Therefore, serving gifted students has been completely teacher dependent in many districts. The fact is, most of our gifted students have been going without an appropriate education.
As we advocate for quality, inclusive gifted education in every one of New York State’s school districts, we’re cognizant of the funding challenges our state and school districts are facing. GiftedNYS believes that gifted education is a very real need, and we know that our schools can provide for these students even with limited resources.
Following are just a few recommendations that are free or low cost ways to respond to the academic and affective needs of gifted students in both general education and designated gifted classrooms. There are many more research-based ways to serve gifted students in addition to the ideas we list here, but this list is a good place to start.
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