Advocating for Gifted Students: Legal Rights, Education, and Support: The Legally Blind Justice Podcast: Episode 36

Advocating for Gifted Students: Legal Rights, Education, and Support

Welcome to another episode of Legally Blind Justice! Today, we’re tackling an important and often overlooked topic—advocating for gifted students and ensuring they receive the education and support they deserve.

Gifted education is more than just advanced coursework—it intersects with special education, legal protections, and the need for proper accommodations. Joining us are experts Dr. Taylor Ruiz and Crystal Ash, who will break down the legal rights of gifted students, the importance of early identification, and how families can advocate effectively within the education system.

If you have questions about education law, special education rights, or need legal support for your child’s educational needs, visit www.kaltmanlaw.com or call 516-788-5534. The team at K Altman Law is here to help you navigate the system and fight for the best possible outcome for your child.

Stay tuned for an insightful discussion, and don’t forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review if you find this episode helpful. Let’s get started!

Unofficial Transcript:

Welcome to the Legally Blind Justice Podcast, where we break down legal rights, advocate for those in need,

and empower you with the knowledge to navigate the legal system. I'm your host, Tim Markley, and today we're diving into a critical, but often misunderstood area of education law, advocating for gifted students and ensuring they receive the support that they need. Gifted education isn't just about high achieving students. It's part of a special education system that too often gets overlooked. These students face unique challenges.

from misidentification to a lack of appropriate accommodations. And today, we'll explore how parents, educators, and advocates can fight for their rights. Joining us today are Dr. Taylor Ruiz, Senior Director of Special Education at K. Altman Law, and Crystal Ash, a dedicated advocate for gifted students. Together, we'll break down what it really means to be a gifted student, the myths surrounding giftedness,

and how the law plays a crucial role in securing the rights of educational support. So whether you're a parent fighting for your child and educator looking for guidance, or just someone interested in education law, stick around. You won't want to miss this episode. Thank you for joining us today to learn more about advocating for gifted children, understanding their rights as well as their educational needs.

My name is Dr. Taylor Ruiz and I am the Senior Director of Special Education here at K. Altman Law. And my co-presenter is Crystal Ash, who is an advocate who specializes in gifted education here at K. Altman Law. Just to talk a little bit about what we do here at K. Altman Law, our team works on advocacy. So what we do is we partner with families to ensure that students

have what they need to meet the IEP requirements for IDEA, FAPE, and other various education laws. We work in tandem with our educational attorneys to secure the best outcomes for our students and ensure that they're getting the accommodations that they need as well as appropriate placement. So today we're going to talk more about gifted students and how gifted education relates to special education.

So for this webinar, just to give you a little bit more detail on what we're looking at today, in terms of gifted education and special education, we're really focusing on gifted education as a tenant of special education and touching on some aspects of gifted education, gifted children, special education, and other aspects that you might not be aware of yet. I'm sure you've all heard of gifted education, right, because you're here, but gifted education really is

much more detailed. It has a lot more depth than you might realize. And so we really want to touch on the fact that gifted education is special education. And to do that, we're kind of breaking the webinar up into three different sections. First, we have our defined section. This is where we're really going to dig in what gifted education is and who our gifted students are. Then we're going to jump into debunking. So there are a lot of misconceptions and myths about gifted education.

what it looks like, who our gifted students are, and there are some misconceptions about what that looks like in the classroom and at home, what their characteristics are. So we want to debunk anything that you might've heard that is not quite accurate to what we actually see in the classroom. And then we'll be moving on to the develop stage, which is what you can do for your gifted students, either as a teacher, as an administrator, or even as a parent. To go into our introduction.

Here at Kaltman Law, we are advocates and we're all really devoted to special education. We come from all types of backgrounds. We have educational diagnosticians, behavior analysts, previous school principals, previous school district administrators, individuals who are well-versed in education law and policy, as well as our education attorneys. I myself come from a

clinical behavioral health background with an emphasis in behavior analysis. And I was previously a school principal in the state of Florida. So like myself, our team is very diverse and well-versed in all of things special education. And we work together to secure the best outcomes for our students. And a little bit more about my background. I am a former educator. I was a general classroom teacher in the high school setting.

in South Carolina as an English teacher. I do also have my master's degree in curriculum and instruction, as well as my certification in gifted education. So I'm very familiar with what gifted education looks like in the classroom and from that curricular side. So a little bit about defining gifted education. We really wanted to begin with defining what gifted education is because like I said, there are a lot of misconceptions out there.

And whether or not you know what gifted education is, where you have a gifted student in your life, gifted and talented very likely is not what you have heard of before or have been led to believe. It's very in-depth, it's very diverse. And these gifted students are more than just that typical successful good student that you might think of when you hear the words gifted and talented. There are actually six profiles of gifted students and giftedness that

gifted students can fall into. And each of these profiles has a very in-depth description, not only of the successfulness that that student might show in their giftedness, but in how they can be gifted. So giftedness is not just academically successful, right? There can be musical giftedness, there can be visual arts giftedness, there can be physical giftedness for students that

are in sports and there can even be giftedness in terms of critical thinking or leadership. So we're trying to really expand your view of what giftedness is so that we can shift that mindset into understanding it as a tenant of special education rather than the opposite of special education, which is generally how it's presented in mainstream media. So diving into those profiles of gifted students, traditional academic performance,

being very high is what we are familiar with. And that is what our type one successful gifted students look like. So these are children who demonstrate behaviors or feelings or needs and have learned the system and what the system expects from them. So this is that typical gifted student that you probably think of in your mind when you hear gifted and talented. This is someone who excels academically. This is a quiet student that is well behaved.

probably sits at the front of the class, gets all A's, tutors their peers. This is generally who you think of. But what you might not realize is that our successful type one students, these students are often very reliant emotionally and mentally on the structure and the guidance of their teachers and of the school system, which can stunt them creatively. So this is really why we're holding this webinar is to see how

Gifted students are very multifaceted and how even the successful type ones have some drawbacks and that giftedness is not necessarily this picture perfect thing that you might imagine. So our successful type ones often fall into a pattern of thinking that relies on that structure.

But because they are so outwardly successful, how they are outwardly very academically gifted and they do well in school, we might not see that aspect of them. And because of that, we might not notice some withdrawal or some self-injurious mental thinking or behavior that stems from the fact that they feel that pressure to be perfect.

because they have been typecast as this perfect gifted student. The other hand, we also have our type two. These type twos challenging students are still gifted, but they are gifted gifted divergently. So many schools actually fail to identify type two students because they don't fit that same typical mold as that type one successful student. These students.

because they aren't identified become frustrated very easily because they're not receiving those services for giftedness that they need for their needs to be met. So they often present more challenging and I'll put that in air quotes, challenging behaviors that kind of contradict that image of the gifted student that you come to expect with that type one. They might be sarcastic, they might be the class clown, they might talk back, not out of defiance, but because they need to be challenged.

and they are not, their needs aren't being met. And so the behaviors that they exhibit kind of seek that and may not necessarily be what you would expect from a gifted student because they're really not being treated like a gifted student. And if their needs aren't being met, they're not going to be as successful. And that need for validation is going to be expressed in other ways. These type two challenging students are actually at risk for becoming a type four, which we call a dropout.

We'll get to that in a second. But this stage one, two and three type gifted student need a lot of attention or they are at risk of dropping from that gifted standpoint and actually losing those services that they need or losing the desire to achieve their giftedness. Our type three, the underground. This is generally a middle school female or maybe a high school male. This usually manifests a little bit later because it is

very socially influenced. So these underground type three gifted students are actually trying to hide their giftedness. They have a strong desire to fit in that giftedness contradicts and oftentimes makes harder because as we see with that perception of a gifted student, they're kind of put on a pedestal up here with their standard peers on a lower level from them in the eyes of school or in the eyes of media. And so our gifted students are standing out.

And these underground students don't want to stand out. They might be experiencing bullying, right? Because they are an easy target, because they are being set apart from their peers as gifted students. And they really need a gentle touch, because there's a reason that they're going underground and hiding their giftedness. They might be getting bullied, they might be losing friends, they might be uncomfortable with the attention that they're getting as a gifted student.

And the more you push them to accept their giftedness and accept those services, the harder they're gonna push back. And we're at risk for losing these type 3s to that type 4, the dropout, because they feel a little bit out of control. Without that social standing and that social comfort that their other peers may experience, they're at risk for rejecting their giftedness and losing it altogether.

Not to say that they would actually lose the gift, but they would lose the desire to express that gift and foster it, which is ideally what we want for our gifted students. Type four, this is our dropout. So this is not literally a dropout, right? This is not somebody who quits school at any level. These are gifted students that have dropped off the face of giftedness, you almost want to say. These students are angry. These are students that have been

ignored for such a long time or in the case of the type one, two or three that move away from their giftedness, these are students that aren't receiving services that foster their giftedness. Their needs are not being met regardless of how we got there, whether they have gone unidentified or they have slowly moved away from that. And these students often become bitter because they feel rejected, right? They're not being taken care of academically or physically or

artistically, however their giftedness may manifest. And so they start to reject others because of the rejection that they're feeling. So that's why we call them the dropout is because they are dropping out of participating in their giftedness. They're going to move on to interests that have nothing to do with school. They may withdraw from school. This might be your student that has their head down or their headphones in or their hood up because they have been rejected for so long and nobody else has taken care of them.

that now they feel like they have to. This is a defensive response in response to their needs not being met. So they're going to seek other areas to be validated in and to feel accepted in because the school system has not been that for them for so long. And that's how our type one to threes end up shifting into a type four dropout is whether they have withdrawn themselves in the case of a type three.

or their challenging behaviors as in the case of a type two, push teachers away from them, or even in the case of a type one, if they crack under that pressure of being the perfect gifted student, that's how we see students end up in a type four if they had been identified previously. Largely though, our type fours are students that were not identified or they were identified far too late as a gifted student to really foster their giftedness and make that something for them to be proud of.

Our type five on our slides here, we have it double labeled. Generally now we call them twice exceptional. These are really the students that start to break that molded thinking of a gifted student versus special education. This is where we marry giftedness and special education because our twice exceptional students are students that are both gifted in one area or more than one area.

but also have a disability of some sort, whether that is an emotional disturbance, an intellectual disability, a learning disability, a physical disability. These are our students that cross those lines and really prove to us that gifted education is special education. These students, however, are the most likely to fall through the cracks because as we have that stereotypical thinking, right, of special education and gifted education,

These students are more likely to not receive services in one area or the other because once they are identified as either a gifted student or a student for special education, the diagnosis stops there. The identification stops there, which is really unfortunate because our twice exceptional students are exactly that. They are exceptional and to pigeonhole them into one area or the other instead of recognizing gifted education as special education.

means that these students need to start going unmet and that they're losing out on services that can really just put them up to the next level if we're fostering both their giftedness and taking care of their needs that may come with their disability. We'll get a little bit more into our twice exceptional student in a couple of slides, but these students are the most likely to fall through the cracks and why it is so important to recognize gifted education and special education as one in the same.

Our last profile of a gifted student is a type six, the autonomous. This student is going to very closely resemble that type one successful, right? This student is going to be academically gifted. They're going to behave well. They're going to enjoy school, but these students differ from a type one in the fact that instead of relying on the structure of the school system to validate them, they don't need you. They don't need me. They don't need the school. They have it.

all figured out on their own. These students are very self-reliant. They're very confident in their giftedness and in their sense of self, and they have figured out how to make the school system work for them. They set their own goals. They are their own leader, and they make sure their needs are met. Whereas a Type 1 may rely on a teacher or just the structure of a school day to feel comfortable and to feel validated, our Type 6s only need themselves, and they are very successful because of that.

because in the ways that type ones tend to not be able to have that self-confidence to pursue things, our type sixes are almost too confident in their abilities and that really sets them up well for the rest of their lives. You can almost think of a type one and a type six as two sides of the same coin. They're reaching the same end, but they have wildly different means to get there.

So these characteristics of our six profiles just go into a little bit more depth on what each profile is going to look like. It kind of gives you a more well-rounded view of each of the descriptions that we saw on the last couple of slides. But what I really want you to pay attention to here is how these characteristics of these profiles don't necessarily fit into the dictionary definition that the word used to label the profile.

may give you the impression of. So for example, in type one, right, we talked about how those students are very successful on the surface, but they may struggle when that support and that structure of the school day or the guidance of their teachers is taken away from them. So for example, our type ones are overachievers and they can be overly dependent on rules and structures and actually lose their creativity and their autonomy.

because they're people pleasers and they can actually really struggle when they get to college because elementary school or primary school, middle school, high school, those were all super easy for them, right? Because they knew that structure, they knew the expectations and they thrive in that situation. Whereas college is very more loosely structured. You do not necessarily have the same amount of hand holding that you might have in the younger grades. And so the type one successfuls, although they have

been very academically successful for their entire lives, they really struggle in the secondary education or in the workforce because they don't have that same level of comfort that they're used to in terms of the structures that they relied on. So really paying attention here in all of these bullets to how the word that is used to describe them is not necessarily how you describe them. If it's a little bit difficult to see on your screen, I'll just hit some of these points really quickly.

Our challenging students are at risk primarily for becoming that level four dropout. They have a high degree of creativity, but that often leads them to questioning authority and having them be identified with ODD, oppositional defiance disorder, when that may not necessarily actually be a diagnosis for them. The way that their giftedness manifests, and especially if it goes unidentified, can kind of blur those lines. So interactions at home and school involving conflict,

Class clowns, disruptions, those are all key identifiers of our type two challenging gifted students that may be misinterpreted as something else. Like we spoke on our underground students, this is more commonly females than it is males because they feel more of that pressure to conform and more of that insecurity because they are not intrinsic members of friend groups or popular clowns or cliques.

But any type of underground student is going to feel a lot of internal conflict to fit in that is contradicted by the way their giftedness makes them stand out. And then we talked about our dropouts in depth. These are just our students that either have gone too long being identified or they have not been identified at all, or they are a type 1 through 3 that has really struggled with their giftedness, leading to them dropping back and taking a step back from pursuing their giftedness.

These students may need a counselor or a trusted adult, their parents, a teacher, somebody in the school system, a coach even to help keep them on track with their giftedness so that they don't drop out and they don't fully pull away and in turn lose interest in school as a whole rather than just in pursuing their giftedness. Our twice exceptional students will primarily show up as a DNQ or does not qualify.

when they are tested one way or the other. So if a student has an obvious physical disability, for example, they may not even be considered for gifted services because there is kind of a one track mindset of giftedness and special education that people get stuck in. And so these students are often not qualified for the other service that they may be qualified for. These students have a few characteristics if they are gifted that might indicate

that they do have a disability that needs to be addressed with special education such as sloppy handwriting, low grades, poor test taking. But most importantly, these students can become very easily frustrated because they are repeatedly not listened to fully, right? Because if a student has obvious giftedness and they say, hey, I'm really bad at math. Well,

No, you can't be bad at math. You're so good at reading, you get such good grades, right? So these students are very easily frustrated because either their giftedness or their disability overshadows that twice exceptionality, and then they go without services. And then our last one, our autonomous gifted learners. These usually show at an early age. If a student is going to be autonomous at school, generally they're autonomous at home, right? So if you have a headstrong toddler,

you might be looking at a type six gifted learner. But these are often our leaders in the community. They're respected, they're liked. These students really seem to thrive on their own, but they do still need those supports that other gifted students need because their giftedness in being autonomous is something that needs to be fostered and supported. And they need to be given that freedom to explore.

their autonomy to make their own goals, to be their own leader. And if that's not something that's recognized in the student and they're missing out on those opportunities to foster their autonomy, the same kind of thing they can backslide into a type four. Any of our gifted learners can kind of slide into that dropout territory if their giftedness is not fostered and they are not adequately supported in the classroom and at home. And then moving on.

to that debunking. So really, this is where everything that we've talked about with those six profiles, I want you to kind of take and absorb and I want you to start shifting your mindset if you haven't already, I would hope you have by now. But if you have not started shifting that mindset between giftedness and special education, I want you to take a moment to do that now, right? Because we're moving into the territory of showing what giftedness is, debunking.

the misconceptions about it and then looking at it in that special education point of view. So giftedness, like we've said, is not necessarily always what you think. Although these students do have a ton of unique traits and there are no two students that are the same, even if they fall into the same profile of giftedness, they often struggle with something, anything behind that facade of what a gifted student is supposed to look like.

our gifted students of any profile often struggle with perfectionism, right? Especially our type ones and our type sixes, because if they're supposed to be this perfect model student and there are really high expectations placed on them because of their giftedness, they're going to internalize that. And they're going to start to struggle with perfectionism. And this can lead to, you know, them

pulling back and cracking under that pressure. And that's how we end up with students in type four. Those high standards that they are placed under, they often start placing on others. And that really impacts them negatively, social emotionally, because if they're facing these high standards and they're struggling with that and they turn around and they start placing those high standards on their peers, well, their peers are going to start struggling with that, especially if their peers are not gifted and they are not at the same standard.

or the same level that these standards were set on, they're going to alienate their peers, they're going to push their friends away. It's really going to impact them social emotionally in the long run for their well-being. And then we also kind of need to debunk that idea of success. Giftedness does not equal success. And conflating the two, especially for students that aren't gifted, has such a negative impact.

Think if you have a student that is gifted, right? And you say that because you are gifted, you are successful and they're not successful. Think about what that's going to do to them mentally, emotionally, academically, and then think of it in the reverse. If we have non gifted students and we say. You can only be successful if you are gifted. They're going to stop trying. They're going to be defeated from the start. They're not going to understand what you mean when you say gifted students.

are successful giftedness equals success. So really breaking down that mindset of what we think of giftedness as is such an important shift to make because giftedness is not success. Giftedness is not a compliment. Giftedness is a trait that a student has and is something that needs to be fostered. It's not a place similarly to how special education is not a place, right, in a school or in your life. It's an aspect of a student that needs to be recognized.

And it's something that goes above and beyond the standard expectation for school and curriculum. So it's something that needs to be recognized as special education. Just continuing to kind of debunk some myths here. Our first one is that gifted education is separate from special education. I've said it a hundred times already, I'm gonna say it again. They are two sides of the same coin. Giftedness and gifted education are a tenant of special education.

We also see the next one, gifted students don't have special needs or disabilities. While that may be true for some gifted students, we have our twice exceptional students who do make up a roughly two to five percent of the entire school age population and it is possible for gifted students to have special needs and disabilities. The myth that gifted students can't qualify for special education services again.

are twice exceptional students, they absolutely can and they should if they have a disability and have needs that need to be met. Our next one, academic giftedness is the only type of giftedness is simply not true. Well, academic giftedness is what you might think of if you are still in that one track mindset of what gifted education is. Surely, right? Academic giftedness is a type of giftedness, but it's not the only type of giftedness.

You can be gifted in sports, music, art. There are any number of things that students can be gifted in beyond just the standard doing well in school academically. The next one I really want to impart on you the importance of not discounting giftedness and the needs that come with that by saying a student is smart or quiet or well behaved, right? They'll be fine. They do so well.

This is exactly how our gifted students end up becoming type four dropouts. If you just assume that your gifted student is fine and that they'll be okay and they don't need my help, they do. And if you don't recognize that and you just assume that they're gonna be okay, this is where we start to see students fall through the cracks, regardless of how they present in class or at school. They're kids and there's something that they struggle with and their giftedness might just be that thing like in the case of our type threes.

If they're standing out and that makes them uncomfortable and they're struggling and you think that they're going to be just fine, they need support. And they need support in school, they need support at home, and that's really where we see giftedness overlap with special education. The next one is also very important to shift your mindset away from, is that student can't be gifted and talented. They're making poor grades, they misbehave, they have a disability.

It's not true. Any student can be gifted just the same way that any student can have a disability, Giftedness and disabilities don't discriminate. So just because a student is not presenting the way that you would expect a gifted student to present doesn't mean that they're not gifted and doesn't mean that they can't qualify for gifted services. And then the final one, although it seems pure of intention,

All students are gifted in some way, gifted education doesn't need to be specialized. While we do recognize that all of our students have unique skills and attributes that make them who they are, and a lot of these are positive, not all students are gifted, if you're thinking of it in terms of gifted education and special education. And categorizing all students and discounting students giftedness by saying everyone is gifted or everyone is special really

takes away from those distinct independent needs that our gifted students have and makes them less likely to get the services that they need. So I'm gonna go ahead and kick this over to Taylor. I'm sure I have talked long enough for you, but Taylor's gonna kind of walk us through in her experience and in her expertise where she has seen giftedness and special education overlap and how even though there are some things that seem like differences between gifted education and special education,

they're really similarities that are just handled in different ways. So Taylor, I'll let you take this one. Perfect. Thanks, Crystal. So in gifted education and special education, there are more commonalities than you may believe. Both of these educational models set additional goals for students, goals that are above and beyond the scope of a general education placement.

of the coin require specialized assessments to determine eligibility, whether it be IQ test, a battery of educational assessments, both of them in order to identify a child as gifted or as special needs or needing an IEP or 504, they are provided with the opportunity to get evaluations and independent testing completed if needed. In special education,

It's generally more so providing accommodations in the form of an IEP or 504 to support students with a specific disability. IEPs are typically based on several different categories that a student must meet to qualify for an IEP. 504s are used more so for medical accommodations during the school day. Overall, both gifted education and special education require

personalized approaches for students. Just as students with disabilities need IEPs and 504s, gifted students need customized learning plans to stay engaged. Gifted students typically do well with project-based or problem-based learning that allow them to be creative. And like I'd mentioned previously, I really want to hone in on this. Schools often fail.

to identify 2E, twice exceptional students, because they primarily only focus on the disability or only on the giftedness, not one or the other. Some clinical themes in gifted education are diagnostic oversight. Many students are overlooked because they aren't great at compensating for their struggles, right? Schools have to be able to balance academic rigor as well as

learning accommodations to fully educate the whole child.

Absolutely, and that's why it's so important for our next step, the development step for you to understand what you can do for your students. So just understanding what giftedness is or isn't and shifting that mindset is not enough. What's really important is to understand what you can do for them. And the first step is understanding who your gifted student is, right? So if you see on our right here, we have a chart that indicates that

59 % of students go unidentified. And that's one way or the other, right? That's not just for giftedness or just for disability. 59 % of students aren't identified for special education or for giftedness combined. And that number only starts to go down as we start to get more specific. So only 20 % of R2E students are identified. And remember, roughly 2 to 5 % of all school-aged children are R2E. So if we're only hitting 20 % of that

very large number in the scale of things. It's a very small percentage of students who are identified and receiving services for 2E. Going down one more step, only 15 % of our students with disabilities are identified and only 6 % of our gifted students are identified. So the

The really important thing that you can do to help your student is to understand the referral process, whether that's referral for giftedness or referral for special education or a referral for both if you think your student is 2E. Each district, each state, each town even might have a different referral process. So definitely reach out to your district or your school to see what that process might be. But generally speaking, the process has very similar steps regardless of where you are.

There's usually going to be a specific referral period and a specific testing window. That test, depending on what you're seeking, may be a group test for giftedness with certain nationally recognized tests that provide a numerical score for giftedness or for a specific disability. If there's a physical disability, that might involve a physical test, or if you think a learning disability in dyslexia might be a reading test. So the test may vary, but there should be a test.

and a testing window. A referral is going to be needed, but that referral can come from anywhere. It can come from you, it can come from a teacher, it can come from an administrator, a parent, a principal, it can even come from a doctor. So once you have that referral, the referral process generally starts at age six, but especially for our autonomous kiddos, right, that are gonna start showing signs early, it's never too early to start looking for that and to collect evidence and to just get some advice.

on if your student needs to be referred. So don't be afraid to look into that process before age six. Schools just typically don't start the referral process until age six. And then keep in mind too that your student can be gifted in one or more areas. They can have a disability in one or more areas or they can be twice exceptional in one or more areas. There is no one thing that your student can be referred for and then that's it. As many things as they need services for, you can get services for them.

and understanding the referral process and where to go from that initial observation of giftedness or disability or twice exceptionality. That's what's really important. Another thing that you can do to support your student is to understand and use gifted education resources. Some of the clinical themes in gifted education are perfectionism and imposter syndrome. Gifted students a lot of times place unrealistic expectations on themselves.

A lot of times they think that their expectations of others, but they're really guided by how they feel about themselves and what's going on in their own mind. That is a telltale sign. know, so talk to your children, see where they stand, see what their expectations are. One thing that I used to do in my classroom when I was a gifted teacher, just to analyze and evaluate where they were, we used to do vision board sessions.

And I would see that they had very, very high expectations for themselves and their lives. So just as a family, you could do something like that with your children and talk about the need for realistic expectations and being able to have achievable goals that are not overwhelming. Okay. Another thing is there's a lot of burnout related to this, as well as mental health risks, high achieving students, gifted students,

they internalize stress. This leads to chronic anxiety and exhaustion, inability to truly focus and burnout. One last thing is there's a lot of social emotional gaps. Gifted students kind of typically feel emotionally disconnected from their peers. You'll notice that gifted students bond better with adults and speak like adults. So

And that's because they are feeling miles above their peers. So maybe talking with your child and giving them some social strategies could be something that would help them in the classroom environment. So to close, I just want to empower you to know your rights as a parent, right? Know what the educational laws are.

know what the policies are that relate to gifted education. Look at your state procedural safeguards. Look at your district gifted policies. Look at the different programs that they offer. These education laws vary by state. So you can really get more information by looking at the district level. Push for assessments. Advocate for your child.

If a child is underperforming, despite you knowing that they have advanced thinking skills, request testing. Seek differentiation for your student. Gifted students benefit from enrichment programs, project-based learning, mentorship opportunities, anything that really gets their mind going. Advocate for dual support for your child. 2E students need accommodations, but they also need challenges. So keep that in mind.

when offering strategies and solutions for your child. You know your child better than any IEP team or LEA. So go with your gut, talk to your child and you know, a lot of times the students will say, well, how was school? it was boring. Okay. We got those dry answers. So try to pull it out of them, right? And get, find why it was boring. Well, was it boring because

you learned something different today than you learned something that you already know today and that was what you were doing in class. Is that why you were bored or is there another reason why you were bored? Just using those thinking patterns and bringing that out really helps students identify how they feel. So with that being said, thank you so much for attending.

That wraps up today's episode of the Legally Blank Justice podcast. We've covered the importance of advocating for gifted students, understanding their legal rights and ensuring they receive the education they deserve. A big thanks to Dr. Taylor Ruiz and Crystal Lash for sharing their expertise on how gifted education intersects with special education and why early identification, proper accommodations and strong advocacy are crucial.

If you have questions about education law, special education rights, or need legal support for your child's educational needs, visit us at www.kaltmanlaw.com or give us a call at 516-788-5534. Our team at K. Altman Law is here to help you navigate the system and fight for the best possible outcome for your child. Thanks for tuning in.

Don't forget to subscribe, share and leave a review if you found this episode helpful. And until next time, stay informed, stay empowered and keep advocating for what's right. See you next time on the Legally Blonde Justice Club.