At the 389th Meeting of the PA State Board of Education (Board), the PDE Special and Gifted Education Committee made recommendations to the Board. The report was given by the Hon. Maureen Lally-Green.

The report began with a closeout of the periodic review of PA Gifted Ed. Regulations. The last issue in that process is the work of the Committee for the Evaluation for Giftedness. In that regard, a special committee of school psychologists provided additional that confirmed the that there appears to be no need to amend Chapter 16 at this time. Instead, what is needed is increased clarity and consistency in the process of evaluation.

To that end, it was recommended that a resource and training guide be created for evaluations that employ a holistic approach. It was also recommended that an annotated written report by the multi-disciplinary team, which includes recommendations, be required to help ensure clarity for parents, staff, and students. In addition, it was recommended that a statewide resource guide for screening and evaluation be created that would include selected assessment tools and their proper use.

The final committee report is due in one year.