Gifted Program Access by State (CRDC 2021-22)
Nationwide, 58.4% of US public schools report a gifted and talented program, but the share ranges from 94.0% in Maryland to 0.3% in Vermont. PlainSchools ranks all 51 reporting state systems, drawn from the federal Civil Rights Data Collection.
Research period:
Key finding
Across the 92,556 US public schools reporting to the federal Civil Rights Data Collection, 58.4% run a gifted and talented program. But that national average hides a divide set largely by state policy.
Access is widest in Maryland, where 94.0% of schools offer a gifted program, and narrowest in Vermont, where only 0.3% do. States near the top tend to mandate and fund gifted services; states near the bottom usually leave the choice to districts or serve advanced students another way.
Research question
Gifted and talented programs serve students who need more challenge than the standard curriculum, and whether a school runs one depends heavily on state policy. Across the 51 state systems with enough reporting schools, what share of schools offer a gifted program, and where is access widest and narrowest?
Methodology
For each state, the figure is the share of public schools that report running a gifted and talented program in the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) for 2021-22. Every school with a non-null gifted-program flag is counted, and a state needs at least 50 reporting schools to be ranked so a handful of schools cannot distort the figure.
This is a school-count measure, not a student-count measure, and it captures whether a program is reported, not how large or how good it is. Because gifted education is governed state by state, the ranking largely tracks policy: the limitation section below explains why a low figure does not mean advanced learners go unserved. Figures are recomputed live from the database on every request, so nothing here is hand-entered.
See the methodology page for source vintage and full details.
States where the most schools offer a gifted program
Top 10 by share of schools reporting a gifted and talented program (CRDC 2021-22)
All 51 state systems, ranked
Share of public schools reporting a gifted and talented program, widest access first. Every state links to its full profile; figures update with each CRDC release.
| # | State | Schools offering gifted program | Schools reporting |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maryland | 94.0% | 1,380 |
| 2 | Oklahoma | 92.7% | 1,762 |
| 3 | Georgia | 92.1% | 2,295 |
| 4 | Virginia | 92.1% | 1,856 |
| 5 | Arkansas | 88.6% | 1,039 |
| 6 | Colorado | 88.4% | 1,895 |
| 7 | North Carolina | 88.4% | 2,674 |
| 8 | South Carolina | 88.1% | 1,171 |
| 9 | Iowa | 86.7% | 1,313 |
| 10 | Kentucky | 86.2% | 1,380 |
| 11 | Texas | 84.7% | 8,786 |
| 12 | Florida | 83.8% | 3,937 |
| 13 | Pennsylvania | 77.4% | 2,865 |
| 14 | Indiana | 76.1% | 1,843 |
| 15 | Oregon | 74.5% | 1,263 |
| 16 | Nebraska | 73.8% | 989 |
| 17 | Louisiana | 73.2% | 1,312 |
| 18 | Kansas | 70.7% | 1,343 |
| 19 | Washington | 70.0% | 2,368 |
| 20 | Alabama | 69.9% | 1,348 |
| 21 | Ohio | 68.6% | 3,527 |
| 22 | Mississippi | 67.1% | 862 |
| 23 | West Virginia | 66.1% | 641 |
| 24 | New Mexico | 64.2% | 854 |
| 25 | New Jersey | 59.1% | 2,472 |
| 26 | Maine | 55.8% | 563 |
| 27 | Tennessee | 50.3% | 1,810 |
| 28 | Missouri | 50.2% | 2,283 |
| 29 | Arizona | 48.6% | 2,027 |
| 30 | Idaho | 48.5% | 758 |
| 31 | California | 48.0% | 9,905 |
| 32 | Nevada | 47.8% | 728 |
| 33 | Hawaii | 41.8% | 294 |
| 34 | Wisconsin | 40.0% | 2,175 |
| 35 | Alaska | 39.6% | 492 |
| 36 | Delaware | 32.0% | 222 |
| 37 | Minnesota | 31.2% | 2,237 |
| 38 | Utah | 28.6% | 1,056 |
| 39 | Connecticut | 27.7% | 993 |
| 40 | Wyoming | 23.6% | 347 |
| 41 | Montana | 20.6% | 824 |
| 42 | Illinois | 19.0% | 3,831 |
| 43 | North Dakota | 15.0% | 492 |
| 44 | South Dakota | 8.3% | 676 |
| 45 | New York | 8.2% | 3,184 |
| 46 | Michigan | 4.8% | 3,347 |
| 47 | New Hampshire | 4.3% | 489 |
| 48 | Massachusetts | 2.3% | 1,817 |
| 49 | Rhode Island | 2.0% | 306 |
| 50 | District of Columbia | 0.4% | 237 |
| 51 | Vermont | 0.3% | 288 |
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), 2021-22. Gifted-program flag is self-reported by schools. U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), 2021-22. Gifted-program flag is self-reported by schools.
What the data shows
Gifted access is a policy map, not a need map
The contrast between Maryland at 94.0% and Vermont at 0.3% is too large to come from differences in students. It reflects state law. Some states mandate that districts identify and serve gifted students and fund the work; others have no mandate and leave it to local choice. So this ranking is best read as a map of state gifted-education policy, with the highest states being those that require and fund programs.
A low figure does not mean advanced learners go unserved
A state near the bottom may still challenge its strongest students through honors and Advanced Placement courses, early college, subject acceleration, or whole-school models, none of which register as a separately reported gifted program. The figure counts a specific reported program, so treat a low number as a prompt to ask how a state serves advanced learners, not as proof that it does not.
Why gifted access matters
Where a gifted program exists, it shapes whether a high-potential student is identified and stretched, and access to it is one input to opportunity alongside the AP, counseling, and staffing data on each profile. It does not by itself measure school quality. Read this ranking as a starting point for asking what advanced learning a given school and state actually provide.
What this analysis cannot tell us
This measures the share of schools that report a gifted and talented program, counted by school, not the share of students identified as gifted or the quality of those programs. A low figure usually reflects state policy rather than student need: some states mandate gifted services and fund them, while others leave the decision to districts or serve advanced students through other means such as honors classes or acceleration, so a school without a separately reported gifted program is not necessarily a school without any provision for advanced learners. The gifted-program flag is self-reported by schools to the Civil Rights Data Collection for 2021-22, and definitions of what counts as a program vary. Gifted access is one input to opportunity, not a complete measure of school quality.
States where the fewest schools offer a gifted program
The 10 states with the lowest share of schools reporting a gifted program (CRDC 2021-22)
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), 2021-22: https://ocrdata.ed.gov/
- National Association for Gifted Children: https://nagc.org/
Cite this analysis
PlainSchools. (2026). Gifted Program Access by State (CRDC 2021-22). https://plainschools.com/research/gifted-program-access-by-state/