The West Chester Area School District supports gifted education for elementary, middle, and high school students who have been identified as eligible for gifted support. Enrichment and acceleration is available to all identified students as determined by the gifted individualized education plan (GIEP) team.
Students may be identified as gifted at any point during their educational career. Both parents and teachers have the ability to start the gifted identification process. The first phase of the process includes data collection, teacher checklists, observations, and student participation in one or more thinking skills lessons within the classroom. The child study team then reviews the information gathered and makes a recommendation as to whether or not the child should move on for further testing with the school psychologist.
If a child is identified as needing gifted services, a Gifted Individualized Education Program (GIEP) is designed by the school team and the parents to meet the child's individual needs. These needs can be met in a variety of ways:
- Through the classroom teacher
- Through the gifted resource teacher
- Through other staff in the building