Katy ISD Gifted & Talented Awareness Session

By Katy ISD Communications:
Parents of children in grades one through 12 who are new to Katy ISD for the 2008-2009 school year are invited to attend a Gifted and Talented Program awareness session on August 28, 7 p.m., in room 1200 at the Katy ISD Education Support Complex located at 6301 S. Stadium Lane. Participants should enter through the Staff Development entrance.

The purpose of this session is to inform parents of the opportunity to refer their child for the gifted and talented program and to explain the GT program options available to Katy ISD students. General information about the Katy ISD gifted program, as well as the district screening, identification and appeal process will be shared.

The state defines a gifted and talented student as one “who performs at or shows the potential for performing at a remarkably high level of accomplishment when compared to others of the same age, experience or environment and who: exhibits high performance capability in an intellectual, creative or artistic area; possesses an unusual capacity for leadership; excels in a specific academic field.”

In Katy ISD, the elementary gifted program is a general intellectual abilities program targeting the content areas of language arts, math, science and social studies. At the secondary level, the gifted program focuses on specific academic ability in each of four core content areas.

Students who are transferring to Katy ISD and who participated in a program for gifted students in their previous district are eligible to be screened for the Katy program at the beginning of this school year. Additionally, transfer students from private schools, overseas schools, or schools in which no gifted program was available to them, are eligible to be screened during the first six weeks of the school year.

All other transfer students may be referred for the gifted program during the district’s testing window for the grade level.  A Gifted and Talented Awareness session for these students will be held on December 9, 2008, 7 p.m., at the Katy ISD Education Support Complex

An awareness session for parents of kindergarten students will be held on October 2, 2008, 7 p.m., at the Katy ISD Educational Support Complex and another held on October 9, 2008, 7 p.m., at Morton Ranch Elementary. Kindergarten students may be referred for screening beginning in October and students in all other grade levels in December.