A Victory for Families of Gifted and Talented Students
For years, younger siblings of Gifted & Talented students were given top priority in citywide gifted programs if they scored in the 97th percentile.
However, last fall, the Department of Education proposed changing its policy so that siblings would only have priority over non-siblings as a tiebreaker, if they receive an identical score on the entrance exam as their older sibling.
My office received dozens of calls and emails from the community demanding action. They told me that the parents of students who work hard enough to get into gifted programs should be able to have any subsequent child in the program too – as long as they pass the test, not if they are just as smart as their brother or sister.
After hearing our concerns, I am proud to say that the Department of Education cancelled its proposed changes and will stick with the plan in place for the 2013-14 school year. I applaud the Department of Education for listening to our community and correcting the issue.
For admission in the fall, the Department of Education will use the same process and policy used for 2012 admission:
• Eligible siblings of students currently enrolled at a school (in grades K-5 for the following September) will be placed first.
• For Citywide programs, siblings scoring at or above the 97th percentile will be placed first, by percentile rank. For district programs, siblings scoring at or above the 90th percentile will be placed first, by percentile rank. After all eligible siblings have been placed, non-sibling applicants will be placed by percentile rank.
• In any case where there are multiple students with the same sibling priority and score, and not enough seats for all of them, offers will be made based upon a random assignment process.