The city also added seven elementary schools to the list of 85 schools hosting kindergarten gifted and talented classes.Īdams’s broad expansion of gifted and talented programs is a drastic departure from former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s attempts to eliminate the city's gifted and talented programs in his efforts to address persistent segregation and inequity in the school system.Ĭritics have long argued that the gifted and talented programs have led to segregated schools where Black and Latino students were underrepresented.
The new third-grade track will allow selected students to attend gifted and talented programs at 44 elementary schools, most of which are receiving accelerated classes for the first time. “Working with families, teachers, and community leaders, we were able to make this expansion happen, and now students from every school district will be able to access a gifted and talented program.” “By expanding our gifted and talented program to all New York City districts, we are giving every young person an opportunity to grow, to learn, to explore their talents and imagination, and we are making sure no child is left behind,” Adams said in a press release Tuesday. There are currently about 938,000 public school students. In April, Mayor Eric Adams announced that he was adding another 100 spots to the 2,400 seats in the kindergarten gifted and talented program, and creating a third-grade option for an initial 1,000 students. The newly expanded gifted and talented programs at New York City’s public schools will open applications on May 31st, with additional elementary school offerings so that students in every district will have a local option.