email this article

By DIANE LONG
Staff Writer

There's a shadow on the future of Amanda Abbott, a straight-A student at Williamson County's Bethesda Elementary and smart enough to be called a gifted student.

She's only in the fourth grade, but she's well aware that the Tennessee legislature could change the law concerning gifted students. And she knows that might mean her school would drop the extra one-hour class each week where she completes advanced projects.

''They might not let gifted students go to the class and they wouldn't get to do any extra work or harder work,'' she said. ''I really like the classes, and they're fun.''

Amanda and her mother were among more than 50 worried parents and students from Davidson, Rutherford and Williamson counties who showed up for yesterday's first meeting of TIGER, a new group that's trying to make sure Tennessee's 18,000 brightest students don't get shuffled aside by the legislature.

The Tennessee Initiative for Gifted Education Reform, founded by parent Michael Swanson of Franklin, wants to head off an effort to strip gifted students of their status as special education students in Tennessee. That designation entitles them to mandated services and legal recourse under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act although the federal legislation does not specifically include gifted students.

Two bills that would move gifted students from special education died in the state House this year. But the group expects that similar bills to put gifted education under the regular curriculum will be introduced when the legislature convenes next month, although the state education department opposes it.

Blending gifted students into the regular classroom might not be a bad idea, Swanson said, if teachers were trained and money was earmarked for the program. The problem, he stressed, is jerking out protection for gifted students before there's a new plan, especially when the state is desperate for money.

''Good goal, bad bill, bad timing,'' Swanson told parents. ''The (new) policy needs to be put out there first. Under a budget crisis, do you think it's going to be a generous plan? I don't think so. It's irresponsible, and we need to stop it.''

Across the country, about 30 states include gifted students under the special education umbrella, a status that equates their superior intellectual needs with the needs of students who are disabled or mentally retarded.

''Special education, to a lot of people, means students with disabilities,'' said Lynda Van Kuren, spokeswoman for the Council for Exceptional Children, an international group of 50,000 educators in special education.

''It is just as egregious to fail to give a child with gifts and talents an appropriate education as it is a child with disabilities,'' she said. ''A lot of people think everything comes easy to (gifted students), so why bother? But that is absolutely not true. These children need specialized techniques.''

Parents of gifted students often battle the pervasive philosophy that their kids have it easy, along with a focus on under-achieving students by school districts.

''They say, 'These kids are already smart, and we need to pull up the rest of the classroom,' '' said Amanda's mom, Debbie Abbott.

But without extra care, bright children often just mentally check out of school, or worse.

''They may be there physically, but they are not learning to the best of their potential,'' Van Kuren said. ''And some of them actually do drop out of school. In a worst case, they can become very depressed and actually commit suicide. You don't ever think of that aspect of it, but it's true.''

In Tennessee, time and money are the dual attractions for moving gifted students, about 2% of the state's students, out of special education. Under current federal regulations, it takes lots of time to test and identify gifted students, and they must have a written Individual Education Plan. Plus, parents can demand services, which cost money that some systems believe they can ill afford.

''The concern particularly was with the amount of paperwork involved, because, if they're under special ed, they would have to go through an IEP just like every special ed student,'' said Tony Lancaster, executive director of the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents. This year, TOSS supported the proposed state legislation to shift gifted students out of special education.

''That IEP is a contract, and once you've locked yourself into that, your school and your school district is going to have to live with that,'' Lancaster said. ''If it were not federally mandated, it would give the locals a little decision in what they wanted to do.''

It's that local discretion that frightens Abbott.

''The little bit they have now would be gone, and so much more is needed,'' Abbott said. ''I just wish there were more.''

Nationally, it's not uncommon for states to chop services for gifted students when the budget gets tight.

''Gifted programs come and go because most schools and states see it as something that's expendable,'' Van Kuren said. ''It's something they want to do, and they will fund a program and it will get started. And things are going well and then here comes a budget crunch.''

That never happened in California, said Sandy Johnson, who moved from there to become Metro's chief instructional officer this fall. She would like to see Tennessee's gifted students served under the regular curriculum.

''My experience has been there's some guidelines under which school districts operate, and they submit a plan to the state … and get some funding to implement it,'' Johnson said. Such a plan would save time and money, she said.

''The time that is being required with these new requirements for testing is just unbelievable,'' she said. ''When you have intensive time requirements, that's people and that's dollars. And that takes people away from doing other things in the system to serve children. I'm not saying that this isn't serving children, but is it the best way to serve children? That's the question. I would like us to consider looking at the possibilities, and I would be very supportive of moving this out from under the special education umbrella. But there certainly have to be guidelines, and in most places, there's a need for funding from the state.''

While it's unclear whether new legislation will be introduced, it's likely, said Beth O'Shea, Metro's gifted programs coordinator.

''This concept appears almost every year before the legislature. Some years there's a stronger push than others. This year I think it will be stronger because the state is in financial crisis.''

It's not a bad idea to move gifted students out of special education, she said, but O'Shea agrees with TIGER that a new plan needs to be in place first.

''I don't support it until there's something in place as an alternative,'' she said. ''As the coordinator of the program, it would be silly of me to think anything but that.''

Across the state, educational groups are choosing up sides. The Tennessee Association of School Psychologists would support a bill, said Ron Roberts, the group's president-elect. But enthusiasm for the switch is waning at TOSS.

''We felt like it was going to be a good thing to do for school districts and not hurt kids,'' said director Lancaster. ''I didn't have superintendents really strong one way or another, so we just decided to leave it alone. I know we don't have plans to reintroduce it.''

And TIGER may have picked up its strongest ally in state Commissioner of Education Faye Taylor.

''At this point, we do not have an alternative mechanism to make sure that students would continue to receive the level of service they currently receive, nor do we have a way to provide due process to those students,'' said education department spokeswoman Judith Morgan. ''In an absence of alternative ways to protect those rights, the department is not prepared to support removing them at this time.''