Grassley's talented and gifted initiative provides block grants to state agencies based on the state's population of children ages 5-18 for the preceding academic year. The grants are to be used in several broad spending areas, with the decisions as to where the money is ultimately used lying in the hands of the local school districts.
"Iowa is one of the leaders in gifted education. Through the remarkable young people involved in the Iowa programs, I have come to believe that we must support initiatives designed to identify and serve the special learning needs of gifted and talented children," Grassley said.
The spending areas where the grants must be used include:
?Developing and implementing programs to address state and local needs for teacher training.
?Making materials and services available through state regional education service center, universities, colleges, or other entities.
?Providing direct educational services and materials to gifted and talented students.
?Supporting innovative approaches and curricula used by local educational agencies, individual schools, or consortia of schools or local educational agencies.
?Providing challenging, high-level course work to individual students or groups of students in schools and school districts that do not have the resources to otherwise provide the courses.
Grassley also worked to include a provision to reauthorize the Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Program. The Javits Program is a research program that funds a national research center and provides grants to a wide range of public and private entities in order to build a nationwide capability to meet the special educational needs of gifted and talented students.
"These students are among our great untapped resources. With the provisions in the B.E.S.T. Act we are helping states and local school districts provide a challenging education so these student's particular gifts can flourish and be fully realized," Grassley said.
The talented and gifted provisions are included in the Cochran Amendment to the B.E.S.T Act.