Who is Eligible to Participate?
The Chapter 16 regulations of the Department of Education define mentally gifted students as those with outstanding intellectual and creative abilities, the development of which requires specially designed instruction. This generally includes students with an IQ of 130 or higher when multiple criteria, as defined by the Department of Education, indicate gifted abilities.
An initial Multiple Disciplinary Evaluation (MDE), to determine if a student is gifted and would benefit from specialized instruction, can be requested by the parents of a student or by school district personnel. The MDE team, which includes the student's parents and a certified school psychologist, collects and evaluates educational information to discover whether the educational criteria in the student's profile strongly indicate gifted abilities. Standardized test scores, talents and abilities, and classroom performance are all considered in addition to the results of an individually administered intelligence test.
