SB114 Summary

• Authorizes the State Department of Education to award competitive two-year grants to public schools for developing new or continuing existing programs for gifted or talented children, with the number of awards dependent on available funding.

• Requires grants to be made for a single year with rebuttable presumption of renewal for one additional year pending funding availability.

• Establishes grant evaluation criteria including program focus on gifted/talented students, curriculum quality, instructor qualifications, preference for traditional school day or after-school transportation programs, and programs serving underserved populations.

• Requires the State Department of Education to adopt rules with an explicit evaluation formula and mandates that grant application scoring be made public information.

• Defines gifted or talented children as ages 4-19 (or those receiving high school diploma) with outstanding abilities in areas including general intellectual ability, specific academic aptitude, creative thinking, leadership, visual/performing arts, or psychomotor ability, and requires local boards of education to match awarded grant funds.