In order to provide the best possible educational opportunities for gifted children, the Five Star District advocates for a variety of best practices. All schools in the district offer programming services for gifted students, with Hulstrom K-8 being the district master school for advanced academics and gifted education. This school specializes in advanced learning, best practices for gifted students, and 21st century skills. At each neighborhood school, the needs of advanced students are primarily addressed.
Jeffco also offers an optional program, the Center for the Gifted, for highly academic students who identify as gifted. These centers have existed since 1984 and offer full-time educational experiences that involve acceleration, enrichment, and attention to emotional needs. Instruction is based on a variety of formal and informal data to ensure that the needs of students are being met. A trained GT counselor provides social-emotional support to the classrooms at each of the GT Center schools one day a week. Jeffco currently offers 9 programs for elementary schools, 6 for middle schools, and 2 for high schools.
Families can check out the GT Center school expectations to learn about the commitments to them. The district has 12 elementary schools, five middle schools, four high schools (three comprehensive high schools and one alternative high school), and six charter schools. The uniqueness of gifted people makes them particularly vulnerable and requires modifications in parenting, teaching, and counseling in order for them to develop optimally. In addition, the district offers preschool programs through the Colorado Preschool Program and offers educational programs for residents of the Adams County Youth Services Center (AYSC).For high school students, the ALP can be combined with an individual academic and professional plan (ICAP) if all the contents of the ALP are inclusive in the ICAP, including achievement and emotional goals. Concurrent enrollment options are also available if indicated in the ALP or in the ICAP (high school individual academic and professional plan).In order for schools to carry out testing and identification of talented students, there are established evaluation periods in which recommendations and tests are conducted.
Students who voluntarily leave a GT Center school and wish to return must complete a GT Center license form. If you are interested in recommending a student to identify you with the GT, contact the GT advisor at your school. Those between the ages of four and twenty-one whose aptitude or competence in terms of skills, talents, and potential for achievement in one or more fields are so exceptional or so advanced in their development that they require special provisions to meet their educational programming needs may be eligible for a talent pool. Families of Latino BVSD elementary and middle school students are invited to meet other Latino families and learn about Destination Imagination. For more information about programming services offered at your child's school or about GT programming in general, visit our programming page or contact your school's GT coordinator or your advocate.
