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GATE

The Pine-Richland School District is committed to being focused on learning for every student every day. Inherent in that commitment is the recognition of the unique abilities, talents, interests, and needs of intellectually-gifted students, which require special educational considerations. Educating the gifted student is the shared responsibility of all educators, the student's parents, and the student.

  • Mrs. Traci Laffey, Wexford Elementary
  • Mrs. Danielle Czegan, Richland and Hance Elementary

Testing for Gifted Services

Gifted learners must be assessed to determine appropriate educational services.  District guidelines and procedures are readily available in all schools within the district and on the district website through the Annual Notice of Student Services.  Pine-Richland School District continues to use data-driven decisions to determine whether a student is mentally gifted. This term includes a person who has an IQ of 130 or higher or meets multiple criteria as outlined in the Department Guidelines indicating gifted ability. Determination of gifted ability will not be based on IQ scores alone. A person with an IQ lower than 130 may be admitted to the gifted services when other educational criteria in the profile of the person strongly indicate gifted ability. Determination of the mentally gifted shall include an assessment by a certified school psychologist.

The Pine-Richland School District has established procedures whereby the classroom teacher and/or school counselor reviews student performance throughout the school year. A general overview of the identification process across all grade levels is as follows: A teacher referral for a gifted evaluation occurs when the student, regardless of any disability, is suspected of being gifted due to the demonstration of the characteristics of mental giftedness consistent with the definition of mentally gifted or the performance level which exceeds that of other students in the regular education classroom.
 
A parent may make a referral when they suspect their child is gifted. The parent may request in writing an evaluation at any time, with the limit of one request per school year. As per 22 PA Code § 16.22 (c), if a parent makes the request for an evaluation verbally, the school district must inform them to put their request in writing and send it to the building guidance counselor. When the District receives the written request, the parents will receive a Permission to Evaluate form within 10 calendar days of the written request from the Pupil Services Department. At that time, the building school counselor will be contacted to complete the building screening matrix whose points are required to complete the evaluation process. The District must receive a parent’s signature on the Permission to Evaluate form to continue with the testing by the certified school psychologist. Once the guidance counselor receives the referral from the classroom teacher, a building screening matrix is completed.
 
Students will receive points for meeting specified criteria, such as:
• Grades
• Standardized achievement scores
• Classroom observations
• Teacher rating scales
• Parent rating scale
• IQ test results
 
A minimum number of points is required for the student to move on to the second phase of the evaluation, which includes the individual intelligence examination given by the certified school psychologist. Once the evaluation is completed, students are awarded points based on their scores on full-scale, individual IQ tests. Finally, points are totaled based on student performance on these multiple criteria. It is possible to qualify for gifted support services with an IQ score below 130 if the student has met all or nearly all other criteria.  
 
Please contact your school counselor to begin the testing process.
 

To learn more about the Pine-Richland School District's criteria for screening for Gifted and Talented students, click here