The Sharon City School District follows the Child Find procedures described by the Commonwealth for the identification of gifted children. Students can be referred for Gifted evaluation by teachers and/or parents/guardians. Teachers review student achievement data and performance standards and will refer a child for evaluation if a child exhibits the characteristics of a gifted student. These characteristics are reviewed with staff in the fall yearly by the Gifted Services Team. If a teacher believes a child could be gifted, he/she can contact the Gifted Support Teacher for further discussion or make a direct referral to the ESAP team by completing the school ESAP form and submitting the form to the school’s Guidance Counselor. The student will then be scheduled for discussion on the school’s ESAP agenda.
Parents/guardians believing their child exhibits the characteristics of a gifted student can make a verbal request to the child’s teacher, guidance counselor, building principal or Student Services Department. The District utilizes a Gifted Referral form that can be completed by the parent/guardian independently or with assistance from the classroom teacher or Supervisor of Student Services. This form is available on the District’s website and in each school building’s main office. Within ten days of the receipt of a verbal or written request, the School Psychologist will send a Permission to Evaluate Gifted Written Notice form, a parent input form, and a gifted criteria rating form to the parent/guardian for completion and return to the Student Services Department.
In the Sharon City School District, students referred for Gifted identification are evaluated by the School Psychologist to determine eligibility and need for Gifted Support services. Once the Permission to Evaluate for gifted is received, a full gifted evaluation is completed within 60 calendar days (from the receipt date of the PTE).
At the Sharon City School District, the standard expectation for gifted qualification is that a student’s Full Scale IQ on a Nationally Standardized and normed cognitive assessment would be a standard score of 130. If a student scores between 125 and 129, the building ESAP team, consisting of the School Psychologist, Gifted Teacher, Principal, Supervisor of Student Services and Classroom Teacher(s), will review the data derived from the aforementioned assessments and determine if the student requires specially designed instruction, based on all other data collection discussed below. Additional data points considered will include CogAt Screening, Acadience benchmark scores, PSSAs, Keystone Assessments, and OnHands assessment.
The elementary Gifted Program in the Sharon City School District provides pull-out enrichment opportunities for students that qualify for the program under chapter 16 of the Pennsylvania State Code. Gifted education is available in every school in the district.