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Finally, Some Good News for Gifted and Disabled!
One of the most challenging and infuriating areas in which I practice is advocating for the gifted and disabled (called “twice exceptional”) these days. I feel particularly passionately about these cases because I fall into the category of twice exceptional (I suffer from multiple learning disabilities) and when I was a student in public school, I was left back in second grade and misdiagnosed as cognitively “slow.”
I am continually arguing to the school districts in South Florida that a gifted student should not be denied special education and related services soley because they are capable of performing at or above grade level. I understand that the denial of special ed. services to the gifted is a national problem and not just limited to Florida.
Well, now for the good news! On December 26, 2007 the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) issued a “Dear Colleague” letter to all public school districts in the country stating that students with disabilities who otherwise qualify for enrollment cannot be denied admission to challenging academic programs, such as Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate classes. Some school districts nationwide have made it a practice to deny students with disabilities admission to accelerated programs (even though they are cognitively capable of doing the work) or conditioning their admission to these programs on giving up their special education services.
For a variety of reasons, I see that problem less often than the situation where a gifted or high-achieving student is denied special education services because they are capable of performing at or above grade level despite their disability. The OCR letter addresses that situation only indirectly, but I think there is language in the letter which could be helpful for a student who is being denied services.
Here is how the letter may be helpful to you in advocating for your twice exceptional child. The OCR states the following:
a) “Discrimination prohibited by these laws [Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act] includes, on the basis of disability, denying a qualified individual with a disability the opportunity to participate in or benefit from the recipient’s aids, benefits or services, and affording a qualified individual with a disability with an opportunity to participate in or benefit from the aid, benefit or service [i.e., the accelerated program] in a manner that is not equal to that offered to individuals without disabilities.”
b) “A public entity also may not impose or apply eligibility criteria that screen out or tend to screen out an individual with a disability or any class of individuals with disabilities from fully and equally enjoying any service, program or activity, unless such criteria can be shown to be necessary for the provision of the service, program or activity being offered.”
c) “Section 504 and Title II require that qualified students with disabilities be given the same opportunities to compete for and benefit from accelerated programs and classes as are given to students without disabilities. ”
In my opinion, one implicit interpretation of the OCR letter is: If your child is qualified to be in an accelerated program but their disability prevents them from competing fairly in that program, your child is entitled to receive special education and related services in that program (in the form of a 504 plan or IEP).
I know this is a complicated area and please feel free to email me at AllisonHertog@gmail.com or call my office at 305-663 9233 if you have any questions. Knock them dead in your next school meeting. 
See our flyer here for more information on how high-achievers can get accommodations on standardized tests.
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#2 written by clb 5 years ago
Your blog looks wonderful. This is my first time on your site. Thank YOU. Your passion shows through. Best of Luck to your blog and all those he might benefit from it.
With regards to your subject…it was a strange and difficult task of getting my very bright son placed in regular ed with accomodations. Amazing…I had no idea that in this day and age this would be so difficult. He has such a desire to learn and has an above avg IQ and since he begged to placed in regular ed and we felt he was due time we requested it. Not imagining it would be a difficult request. We did succeed but not easily. He is thriving and loves it. They tried so hard to refuse which makes it all the more sad this still difficult to achieve. We have so much to achieve as families with children with disabilies.
So glad their are those like yourself.. that are there to help with the journey. Again …many thanks…GOOD LUCK! -
#3 written by SS 5 years ago
Great article! My son Bradley has a similar situation at school. Although his IQ score alone doesn’t qualify him for gifted level instruction, his total academic achievement score puts him in the 99.7 percentile, despite his difficulties associated with ADHD. Unfortunately, what many educators don’t realize is that attention deficits and impulsivity can depress the IQ scores that schools rely on to identify giftedness. Concurrently, high ability can mask ADHD symptoms and the child’s disability is often overlooked.
Bradley is working above grade level in academic areas, but has difficulty following directions and staying on task, rushing through his work making lots of careless errors, not completing assignments, forgetfulness, and other executive function deficits. All of these symptoms impact his school performance and baffle his teachers. They don’t understand why this high-achiever is having such difficulty with seemingly simple tasks. His performance is variable from day to day, and although medication helps with many of the symptoms, it’s not 100%.
We were finally able to get Bradley on a 504 plan a few weeks ago. Now the challenge will be to provide an intellectually stimulating environment at school which will allow him to advance academically, while implementing the appropriate interventions and accommodations in the classroom to address his underlying deficits in executive function. Thanks to school advocates like you, our children are getting the kind of representation and support our 2E kids need. Best of luck in your endeavors and keep up the good work!
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#4 written by Pat Hoeg 4 years ago
I am glad to learn that some parents have been successful in obtaining 504 plans for their ADHD and gifted children. Could you please explain how you were able to get 504 plans for your gifted ADHD children? My daughter was recently diagnosed with ADHD, Inattentive Type and is very bright. She works very slowly and also has graphomotor (handwriting) issues. The school has refused to give her a 504 plan “because compared to the average child, her grades are too good.” Any help would be much appreciated! Thank you!
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#5 written by Sibyl V. 4 years ago
Hi Paty,
A very ingenious OT I work with, developed an “Occupational Therapy referral checklist”. It as a sheet for the teachers to check off from, which includes a long list of concerns or issues she sees in a child, i.e. “awkward grasp of pencil”, “overly active”, “disorganized”, “disruptive”, etc.
The OT originally used the checklist to get an idea of the problems a child faces in class, further test those areas, and then develop a therapy program to address such issues.
However, after many frustrating school meetings, she decided to bring this checklist to the meetings, previously filled and signed by the child’s teacher of course, and use it as proof that the child actually faces “barriers to learning”. She says that after shcowing the checklist, the school invariably starts giving services to her patients.
I hope this helps. -
#6 written by Adam S. 1 year ago
Good Morning,
I am a special educator and came across an old entry of yours regarding a ‘Dear Collegue’ issued in 2007 that attempts to clarify the involvment of SPED students in more advanced curriclums such as AP and IB.
You highlight some important passages in the letter, but one word keeps sticking in my brain again and again–”qualified individual”. The term is used much but defined not at all.
Specifically, the challenge facing many schools is how to include students with Autism in these higher level classes (such as IB) as their disability often impedes their ability to produce an adequate amount of work in an adequate amount of time to be prepared for the IB exams…
…so, what makes a student ‘qualified’? Is it an IQ score? Scores on standarized tests? Grades? Given that there is no barrier into IB classes where I work, we sometimes find ourselves reluctantly allowing a student into such a program despite our professional opnions that the class(es) will be too demanding for the student thus setting them up for failure.
I realize this is all an opinion-laced topic, but I wanted to get your input as you seem to be initimately involved with these tricky challenges.
Thanks
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#7 written by AllisonHertog 1 year ago
Adam:
This is a great question, and as you probably guessed, there’s no black and white answer. As I see it, a “qualified” individual in this case is someone who was able to meet the entry requirements of the IB program. Of course, some kids who get into an IB program met the criteria for admission with the assistance of accommodations, such as extended time. In your case, if there are no entry requirements, which I believe is unusual, then no one (disabled or not) is “qualified.” Perhaps you want to review that internal issue and set “qualifications” for entry.
Disabled students in your program who need and are entitled to extended time under the Americans with Disabilities Act (which was amended to clearly include high-functioning disabled individuals in 2009), are entitled to get extended time when completing classwork and exams in your program. However, if your program legitimately gives the disabled students all the accommodations to which they are entitled under the law and they don’t meet the criteria to stay in your program, assuming you have criteria to remain in the program, then your program is allowed to dismiss them just as they would any non-disabled student who wasn’t making the cut.
Hope this helps. It’s a complicated issue, which is difficult to discuss without referring to the specific facts of an individual student.
Best Regards,
Allison Hertog
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I have read both of the current dilemmas. One, the plight of the gifted “learning disabled” child, and the other, learning disabled with behavioral “symptoms” of their disorders.
First of all, the public school system in this country (in my opinion) is a place for children that can be made to fit into the “mold”. Learning disabled children, with mild symptoms of their disorder, can generally fair well with some modifications. Other learning disabled children, the ones that exhibit “behavior” issues, should be more closely examined by a highly qualified neuropsychologist. A majority of children diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, (approx 60% according to statistics) have some other comorbit disorder. In my opinion, the ones that have behavior issues, may need to be placed in a private school settings with highly specialized instructors. Some of these children may require other types of interventions which are not available from the public school. Teachers that have BA degrees in education, even ones with special ed training, are not qualified to employ the use of behavioral techniques in trying to change these types of childrens symptoms. And that is exactly what they are, they are symptoms. They are not purposely being “bad”. How are these children going to find their way in the world, if they aren’t given the proper training to be successful? With the over crowding of public schools, and large class sizes, these children can’t get the type of help that they need. Wasn’t that the whole point of creating IDEA…… because the United States government found that they were spending “X” amount of dollars, supporting all of these adults that were invloved in social services programs, becuase they couldn’t care for themselves?
As for the “gifted” student that is learning disabled, and denied access to programs; that’s just deplorable! Could be that some of these public schools would not like to see one of their “learning disabled” students take the prize or limelight, from their star pupil. All these children still have a terrible stigma attached to them. They’re “slow”, “retarded”, “stupid”, “weird” or “corny”. I remember when I was a high school student, how most of the kids treated the children that were in special ed classes. I never liked it. I always talked to them, and found them to be very nice, and intelligent. That was in the 80′s. Things still have’t changed.
The laws have been written. It doesn’t say that it has to be the Best available, but it does say that it has to be appropriate for the individual “case”.