A. The department shall adopt standards pertaining to the determination of who is a gifted child and shall publish those standards as part of the educational standards for New Mexico schools.

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B. In adopting standards to determine who is a gifted child, the department shall provide for the evaluation of selected school-age children by multidisciplinary teams from each child’s school district. That team shall be vested with the authority to designate a child as gifted. The team shall consider information regarding a child’s cultural and linguistic background and socioeconomic background in the identification, referral and evaluation process. The team also shall consider any disabling condition in the identification, referral and evaluation process.

C. Each school district offering a gifted education program shall create one or more advisory committees of parents, community members, students and school staff members. The school district may create as many advisory committees as there are high schools in the district or may create a single districtwide advisory committee. The membership of each advisory committee shall reflect the cultural diversity of the enrollment of the school district or the schools the committee advises. The advisory committee shall regularly review the goals and priorities of the gifted program, including the operational plans for student identification, evaluation, placement and service delivery and shall demonstrate support for the gifted program.

D. In determining whether a child is gifted, the multidisciplinary team shall consider diagnostic or other evidence of the child’s:

(1)     creativity or divergent-thinking ability;

(2)     critical-thinking or problem-solving ability; (3)     intelligence; and

(4)     achievement.