In some school districts, gifted early childhood programs rely on private testing, rather than school based identification and tests. The cost of private testing has resulted in a gifted kindergarten class that is at least 70 percent white.
In Palm Beach County children entering kindergarten are too young to be screened by the school district. The gifted class requires an IQ test for admission, and parents often pay $300 to $500 for the test and make an effort to work through the system, which does not seek out students of exceptional ability when they are preschoolers.
The disparity shows in Palm Beach County where 70 percent of the gifted students are white. In comparison, the entire elementary school population is only 33 percent white.
In Florida, the law requires public schools to provide gifted education for students “who have superior intellectual development and are capable of high performance.” Students who demonstrate such potential via private testing are then eligible to receive services for gifted children.
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