Lawmakers want more Bronx kids in gifted classes

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Parents have said the city’s education department has not provided easy access to information about gifted and talented programs.

A new bill that will eventually go before city council would change that.

The plan, introduced last fall in the council’s education committee, would require the education department to distribute details about the gifted and talented program in material packets sent to potential pre-kindergarten students.

“They are like top secret, and you really have to dig around,” Marvin Shelton, president of District 10’s Community Education Council, said about locating information on gifted and talented programs. Introducing it to pre-K students is something Shelton said he could support.

Bronx borough president Ruben Diaz Jr., shared his support of the proposed law April 19 to the council’s education committee. The inclusion of more children of color in the gifted and talented process could increase the chances of those same students getting into specialized high schools, he said.

“Gifted and talented programming is a key piece of this educational puzzle because it provides academic rigor for young children that paves the way for later success,” Diaz said.

Diaz already had taken this idea on the road with Brooklyn borough president Eric Adams, sharing it in public hearings in both boroughs. There, Diaz warned of several “disturbing trends,” like parents not receiving information about the program, or being forced to proactively seek that information on their own. In some cases, teachers were not even advised about the placement test needed to get into the program.

“We feel a law like this would provide needed information to families that might not be aware of these programs,” said Damon Lipcomb, legislative and budget director for Brooklyn-based Councilman Robert Cornegy Jr., who is the bill’s lead sponsor.

The bill, Lipcomb said, has already been through committee and is now awaiting input from Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office, working out details like financing before it goes to city council for a final vote. So far, Lipcomb said, the measure has encountered no opposition.

Robert Sanft, the student enrollment office chief executive at the education department, said the gifted and talented handbook is published in nine languages, posted online, and distributed to all pre-K sites, elementary schools, standalone pre-K centers, shelters and libraries. Information about the program also is available at welcome centers across the city, superintendents’ offices, as well as social media.

Last fall, for the first time, the education department mailed postcards sharing placement test information to families enrolled in pre-K. It also piloted “It’s Elementary,” a series of school admission events for families, and partnered with the New York City Homeless Services and Human Resources Administration to encourage families living in shelters to submit testing requests at their shelter.

Last year, the incoming kindergartners taking the gifted and talented placement test rose by 14.5 percent to just under 16,600 citywide.

Students who receive a score of at least 97 are given first priority to attend gifted and talented programs. Siblings who receive 90 or better also receive priority, according to the program’s handbook.

But that creates a new hurdle for District 10 families — where to place all these new students in the gifted and talented program, if more begin to qualify. Right now, Milton Fein School P.S. 7 and The Spuyten Duyvil School P.S. 24 are the only gifted and talented programs in District 10 Bronx for kindergarten through fifth grade.

Gifted and Talented programs, G&T programs, Int 1347, Damon Lipcomb, Marvin Shelton, Ruben Diaz Jr., DOE, Robert Cornegy Jr.,

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