Bill would remove gifted students from special-education provisions

A bill that would remove gifted children from the realm of special education was introduced in the Kansas Legislature on Monday.

House Bill 2630, introduced by the House Committee on Education, is similar to one that gifted-education advocates fought last year, saying it could gut funding for gifted education and do away with protections gifted students and their families have.

The bill removes references of gifted children from the category of special education.

About 14,000 Kansas students are identified as intellectually gifted, meaning they completed a battery of assessments and were approved to receive special-education services. Wichita, the state’s largest district, has about 1,200 gifted students who are served in a variety of ways by 45 gifted-education teachers.

Along with mandating that gifted children receive services based on their needs, Kansas also requires teachers of the gifted to have specialized training and certification.

This story was originally published February 8, 2016 at 5:44 PM with the headline "Bill would remove gifted students from special-education provisions."