Identification

Colorado's Identification Guidelines

There are no federal laws regarding Gifted identification and programming. We are fortunate to live in a state where there are laws regulating Gifted identification. DPS must follow the state law regarding how Gifted identifications are made.

Colorado's Exceptional Children’s Educational Act (ECEA) defines “identification” as: The assessment process used by the AU [DPS] for identifying students who meet the definition for identifying the educational needs of gifted students.

The gifted and talented identification process offers multiple opportunities and pathways for student identification in the following areas:

• general or specific intellectual ability

• specific academic aptitude (reading, writing, math, science, social studies, and world language)

• specific talent aptitude (visual or performing arts, musical, dance or psychomotor abilities, creative or productive thinking and/or leadership abilities)

Per state law, all gifted identification must be based on a body of evidence, which must include standardized assessments. The development of a body of evidence is an ongoing, thoughtful process and may take time to gather qualifying pieces of data.