Special Populations and Support

TEA helps ensure that Texas children enter schools with the foundational knowledge and skills to be curious, confident, and successful learners. Through partnerships with families, community organizations, schools and local educational agencies (LEAs), and other government agencies, TEA supports effective and aligned early learning opportunities, policies, and programs. 

Early childhood education supports encompass learning from birth to grade 2. Focus areas include access to high-quality prekindergarten (HQPK), early learning childhood development resources including materials and training focused on family engagement and grade-level guidelines, and workforce partnerships. 

SB 560 Emergent Bilingual Strategic Plan

Given the continued increase of emergent bilingual students in classrooms across Texas, this strategic plan is timely in providing a blueprint for support needed to bring intentionality and focus to such a large, specialized population impacted in Texas schools. Our goal for Texas is to ensure that schools and staff are properly equipped to support our EB students on an individualized basis, because every student deserves access to programs and instruction that could lead to academic success.

• Senate Bill 560 Emergent Bilingual Strategic Plan (PDF)

Purpose

Texas has a long history of supporting the fundamental skill of reading. This history includes a focus on early identification and intervention for students with dyslexia. This page includes resources to assist in identifying and providing services for students with dyslexia and related disorders in Texas schools. In addition to this page, information is available through the State Dyslexia Coordinator, ESC Dyslexia Coordinator, the dyslexia contacts at each of the 20 regional education service centers and the helpline. We welcome any suggestions you may have that will improve this page.

Dyslexia Handbook

The Texas Dyslexia Handbook is developed and adopted into administrative rule by the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE). The SBOE requires that each district and open-enrollment charter school implement the SBOE’s strategies for screening, individualized evaluation, and techniques for treating dyslexia and related disorders through its approved “Dyslexia Handbook: Procedures Concerning Dyslexia and Related Disorders” [19 Texas Administrative Code 74.28]

In effect as of June 30, 2024. At the April 12, 2024 State Board of Education (SBOE) meeting, the SBOE approved for second reading and final adoption changes to 19 Texas Administrative Code (TAC) 74.28. Included as a figure in 19 TAC 74.28 is the SBOE’s Dyslexia Handbook. The rule was filed in the Texas Register on June 1, which makes the rule and handbook effective on June 30, 2024. 

Welcome to the gifted/talented (G/T) education webpage. The state's goal for G/T students is to ensure that students who participate in G/T services demonstrate self-directed learning, thinking, research, and communication skills. G/T students develop innovative products and sophisticated performances that reflect individuality and creativity and are targeted to an audience outside the classroom.

A gifted/talented student is a child or youth who performs at or shows the potential for performing at a remarkably high level of accomplishment when compared to others of the same age, experience, or environment and who

• exhibits high-performance capability in an intellectual, creative, or artistic area;
• possesses an unusual capacity for leadership; or
• excels in a specific academic field. (Texas Education Code §29.121)

The following G/T resources assist local education agencies in certifying to the commissioner that the district has established a program for G/T students as required by rule, and it is consistent with the Texas State Plan for the Education of Gifted/Talented Students (State Plan) under Texas Education Code Section 29.123 and the use of the funds on the district’s program for G/T as provided by the State Board of Education rule.

Texas State Plan

The State Plan provides requirements for and guidance to districts as they meet the unique needs of the gifted/talented population in Texas.

The Texas State Plan for the Education of Gifted/Talented Students (State Plan) - revised 2024.

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English Version (PDF, 160 KB)  

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 Spanish Version (PDF, 181 KB)

For a print-ready file allowing you to produce an English - Spanish flip version of the Texas State Plan for the Education of Gifted/Talented Students, please e-mail gted@tea.texas.gov.

Gifted/Talented Mailing List

Professional Development

The 30 hours of G/T foundational training, 6 hours of update, and administrator/counselor training are coordinated by the local district.

• Required Gifted/Talented Teacher Training (PDF, 16.9 KB)
• Gifted and Talented (Supplemental) (SBEC Standards)

School board training and other trainings are available through the regional Education Service Centers (ESCs).

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) is committed to increasing awareness, building local capacity, and strengthening the supports, resources, and tools available to Texas public schools to meet the unique needs and statutory requirements of highly mobile and at-risk student populations. 

Through collaboration, technical assistance, and targeted guidance, TEA helps ensure that students facing significant educational disruptions have equitable access to educational opportunities and the services necessary to support academic success and well-being.

To better align specialized supports and expertise, programs formerly housed within the Highly Mobile and At-Risk (HMAR) unit are now administered within the divisions noted in the contacts column to the right. This structure enables TEA to provide focused leadership, resources, and technical assistance that promote educational stability and positive outcomes for these student populations.