Gifted student: acceleration, university courses and accommodations

This is a bill of rights, not a program. There is no application to fill out and no office that approves anything: it is a list of thirty-two rights that the Department of Education and private basic-education institutions must conform their regulations to, and that the Council and the State’s postsecondary institutions must conform or create regulation to comply with. Its practical value is exactly that: it gives you the text to cite when you request acceleration, compacting or a university course and are told there is no basis for it.

Students residing in Puerto Rico, identified as gifted by a state-certified professional, studying in a basic-education institution or at home. The law defines "basic-education institution" broadly: a public educational institution of the Puerto Rico Department of Education, private or municipal, with academic offerings at preschool, elementary, secondary, vocational, technical, high-skills and non-university postsecondary levels. And it defines home education as the learning process where the child’s educational context is primarily their home and family and outside a basic-education institution. Identification has specific requirements: an IQ equal to or greater than 130, and psychological and educational evaluations performed by a state-certified professional, whom the law defines as a professional who completed a university degree as a psychologist, obtains State certification, and holds it current.

• Residing in Puerto Rico and studying in a basic-education institution — public, private or municipal — or at home.Verified against the official source
• Being identified as gifted by a state-certified professional: a psychologist with a university degree and a current State certification.Verified against the official source
• An IQ equal to or greater than 130, demonstrated through psychological and educational evaluations.Verified against the official source

• The psychological and educational evaluations performed by the state-certified professional. They support the gifted identification, and therefore everything else.

1. 1

   Step 1: Start with the identification, because everything hangs on it

   Article 2 conditions the law’s application on the student being identified as gifted by a state-certified professional. Article 3 says precisely what that means: a child or youth with an IQ equal to or greater than 130, with exceptional cognitive capacity above their chronological age and superior to others of the same age, who exhibits and demonstrates — through psychological and educational evaluations performed by a state-certified professional — high intellectual, creative, artistic or leadership capacity, and preferred ways of learning. Note the law asks for two kinds of evaluation, psychological and educational, and that the certified professional is, by the law’s own definition, a psychologist with a university degree and a current State certification. One of the thirty-two rights, number 30, is precisely to enjoy a multidirectional and multidimensional identification process.

2. 2

   Step 2: The six educational alternatives the law names by name

   Right 11 is the one most used in a school meeting, because it names the modalities instead of speaking generally: having a diversity of educational alternatives such as academic acceleration, differentiated education, compacting, grouping, curriculum enrichment and early university admission, among others. That "among others" leaves the list open, but the six named ones are no longer up for debate as to whether they exist. Alongside them go right 21, receiving the recommended accommodations, and right 4, joining a learning process at greater speed and going into concepts, subjects and knowledge of greater complexity.

3. 3

   Step 3: University courses while still in high school

   Four consecutive rights form the complete route and are worth reading together. Number 24: continuing high school studies while taking university courses simultaneously. Number 25: obtaining convalidation of the completed university courses, according to established regulation — convalidation is a right, but its rules come from the institution’s regulation. Number 26: being recognized for academic achievements at graduation ceremonies, and to that end grades earned in passed university courses shall be included in the calculation when granting graduation awards. And number 27: being accepted by a university without age discrimination once meeting the minimum admission requirements. That last one has an express condition — meeting the minimum admission requirements — and an express prohibition: age cannot be the reason for rejection.

4. 4

   Step 4: The rights about how they treat them, which are rights too

   A good share of the thirty-two speak to treatment, and are written that way on purpose. Thinking differently or suggesting different ways of doing things (6). Being fair, idealistic, sensitive and sensible (7). Questioning existing processes and proposing new solutions without this being seen as a challenge to authority (8). Being persistent (9). Enjoying an inclusive educational and social environment free of discrimination (10). Being passionate about their area of interest without having to apologize for it (13). Showing an identity beyond their area of potential (14). Feeling good and celebrating their achievements (15). Making mistakes without being prejudged, discriminated against, harassed or mistreated (16). And one the law places on the professionals’ side: benefiting from an understanding, on the professionals’ part, of the asynchrony that may manifest in gifted students because of their particular profile (31).

5. 5

   Step 5: If you educate at home, right 32 is yours

   The last of the thirty-two rights exists because the exclusion it fixes was real: gifted students receiving education in "Home Schooling" mode may participate in internships, summer camps, scholarships and any other activity reserved for students enrolled in student institutions or colleges, as part of their rights to educational services aimed at the interests and needs of the gifted student population. That is: not being enrolled in an institution is not, by itself, a valid reason to leave you out of an internship, a summer camp or a scholarship aimed at gifted students. Article 2 had already included the home in the law’s scope; number 32 makes it operative.

6. 6

   Step 6: Read Article 5 before the meeting, because it will be cited back

   Article 5 has two sentences pointing opposite ways and you need both. The first opens: nothing in this Act shall be understood to exclude, restrict, limit or negatively affect in any way the rights recognized in other state or federal laws. That means this bill of rights adds to whatever you already have — for example through special education — and does not replace it. The second limits: everything provided in this Act shall be enforced insofar as the State’s facilities permit. That second sentence is what a school may invoke when it says it lacks resources, and it is honest to know it is in the text. It serves to calibrate expectations, not to discard the claim: the rights that do not depend on facilities — treatment, no age discrimination in admission, the inclusion of university grades in the awards calculation — are not settled by that phrase.

7. 7

   Step 7: Who has to change the regulations

   Article 6 splits the task among four kinds of entity. The Puerto Rico Department of Education and private basic-education institutions must conform their regulations to this Act’s provisions. And the Council and the State’s postsecondary institutions must conform or create regulation consistent with this Act. On the "Council": the law defines it as the Council on Education of Puerto Rico under Reorganization Plan 1-2010, and OGP’s compilation adds a note stating it was replaced by the Junta de Instituciones Postsecundarias attached to the Department of State by Act 212-2018. We reproduce that note as it appears in the compilation; we did not read Act 212-2018 and do not describe its contents.

There is no office receiving applications under this law: the rights apply where the student studies. The counterpart is the basic-education institution itself — Department of Education public, private or municipal — or the university when it comes to rights 24 through 27. Article 6 requires the Department of Education and private institutions to conform their regulations, and the Council and the State’s postsecondary institutions to conform or create regulation. The gifted identification is not done by the school but by a state-certified professional, whom the law defines as a psychologist with a university degree and current state certification.

• Claiming the rights without the identification: Article 2 requires it as a condition of applicability.
• Bringing only one evaluation: the law asks for psychological and educational evaluations, plural and both kinds.
• Believing the law only covers public school: it includes private, municipal and home education.
• Accepting that a passed university course does not count toward graduation awards: right 26 says otherwise.
• Accepting a university rejection based on age after meeting the minimum admission requirements.
• If you educate at home, not claiming internships, summer camps and scholarships: right 32 includes them.
• Reading Article 5 for its first sentence only and learning the second when the school cites it back at you.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Educación de Puerto Rico

  Educación

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov

• Puerto Rico Department of Education

  DEPR

  de.pr.gov