Connecticut is not protecting its most talented students, leaving them to fall behind due to a lack of support from the state’s education system. As a parent of a talented and gifted student, the author has seen firsthand the devastating effects of districts failing to identify and serve these students.

The Problem

The Connecticut State Department of Education requires districts to submit data on talented and gifted students, but it does not check the accuracy of this data. As a result, many districts are not providing the necessary support for these students. In fact, 31% of districts identified zero talented and gifted students, and 73% served zero students in the 2025-2026 school year.

The lack of support for talented and gifted students is not just a local issue, but a national one. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights estimates that 6% of public school students are enrolled in gifted and talented programs, but Connecticut is far behind this average, serving only 1.8% of its students.

The Solution

To address this issue, districts need to move away from the ‘identify, not-serve’ model and instead have a highly visible and accessible process for identifying and serving gifted students. This includes using multiple measures to determine who should receive services and providing support for students who are not being served.

Del Siegle, Director of the National Center for Research on Gifted Education at the University of Connecticut, stated: ‘We need to do a better job of identifying kids for these services, and then we need to do a better job providing these services.’ By doing so, Connecticut can ensure that its most talented students are given the support they need to succeed.

Original reporting: The Connecticut Mirror — read the source article.