What is a Program Specialist, why a reading screening, and help with a Twice Exceptional (2e) 7th grade boy

[AM23]

My son is in 7th grade at a large public school in Pennsylvania and qualified for an IEP under Autism. He's kind and very bright and wants to be an engineer but is having a really hard time with school. His school refuses to recognize him as gifted. He excels in math, and is two years advanced, and finds gen ed science unchallenging. He struggles with reading, particularly fluency, accuracy, and spelling, relying on memorization instead of sounding out words. Comprehension had been superior but is now slowly declining but still above average. His writing and handwriting are also problematic, but his scores remain average or above, which limits the help he can receive despite numerous accommodations. There were times he refused to read, write, or go to school in elementary, leading the school to require meetings with a guidance counselor despite our not wanting this, and it clearly being from a teacher with the attitude that he just wasn't trying hard enough. At the end of 6th grade, we shared a reading and language evaluation highlighting concerns in reading, writing, and spelling. The school reevaluated him and found results to be average but agreed to support him with essay writing, as writing was clearly not "average",  through teacher conferences and small group instruction in writing, but it’s unclear whether it’s being implemented effectively. We have concerns about when teacher conferencing and autocorrect aren't available (tests, on-demand writing, sharing info with peers).

Recently, we brought up our ongoing concerns about read and writing and also lack of progress and provided writing samples and reading probes. Without autocorrect and typing, his written responses are at a lower level than his verbal response would be and not at a 7th grade level. In response, school staff suggested a reading evaluation by a program specialist to gather more data, which was clarified to be a screening rather than another formal evaluation. We found this process confusing and questioned why previous concerns were handled differently. The current laws do not recognize his reading and writing disabilities since the school sees him as on grade level and at the top of his class, which feels unfair. While he maintains good grades with support, he experiences stress and struggles with the workload. We hope he can remain in public school, but it greatly depends on his teachers’ understanding of him. We are considering potential changes to his schooling arrangements, although we really want him to stay in public school, but it depends on his teachers and if they "get" him as to how each year goes. This year has been relatively good. He is working on self-advocacy and just started to gain some confidence in what he needs and how to ask for it. Although, it's difficult for him to self-advocate in an environment that doesn't fully recognize his needs or call them what they really are. It's very confusing and frustrating. He also has a hard time finding peers to connect with that have similar interests and at the same level.

Our main problem with getting help for our son is that "relative to ability" was removed leaving only relative to age or grade-level for qualifying for help as an SLD under IDEA and State criteria. So, the law does not "see" his reading and writing disabilities, because he's not below grade level which seems discriminatory to Twice Exceptional students just as requiring discrepancy between ability and achievement was not "seeing" all students who needed help prior to this change in 2006, and thus it's been difficult finding and advocate or attorney who understands and can give advice. My son does have discrepancies and would most likely qualify for SLD in reading and writing if he didn't first have to be below age and grade-level. The school points to his excellent grades, however he has a lot of support and leeway to achieve this, but my son shows stress, big emotions, and behaviors at home that indicate everything is not okay at school as he is using higher level reasoning and abilities to compensate for lower level deficits. (He skims, he's good at using context, but is being overwhelmed with the workload in 7th grade.) He is willing to do very , very minimal homework and reading and writing tutoring after school, because he doesn't want to do more school stuff at home especially since the school is not meeting his needs in a way that works for him and he's exhausted at the end of the day.  Note, we first brought reading and writing concerns to the school in 1st grade when he became very upset and refused to do these things at home. He has many great skills that will serve him well in adult life, but he has to get through school first. I'd appreciate any tips for 2e kids in public schools that don't seem to "see" them? Thanks!

[Lisa Lightner]

Whew—this is such a powerful, clear, and unfortunately very common story for 2e (twice exceptional) kids in public school. First, you’re doing everything right—you’ve documented, provided outside data, shown samples, advocated consistently, and kept the focus on your child’s actual experience—not just the grades or scores.

Here’s the heart of the issue: your son is masking his disabilities with his strengths, and the school is choosing to see only the strengths. That’s not just frustrating—it’s a systemic failure for so many 2e kids.

You're right that "relative to ability" isn't part of the eligibility criteria under IDEA anymore, and that makes it harder to qualify under SLD if a student is still performing at or above grade level. But nothing in the law says schools can't consider the discrepancy between a student’s ability and their actual performance—or how hard they’re working to maintain those grades. That’s a red flag the team is ignoring.

Here are some suggestions and next steps:

1. Ask for an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) at public expense.
If the school’s reevaluation was surface-level or didn't fully assess his functional performance, especially in reading and writing under stress or timed conditions, this is your next move. You have the right to request it if you disagree with their evaluation. Read up before you do this (info on my site) because if the school declines, they're required to file for due process. 

2. Ask for data on how the writing accommodations are being implemented.
Teacher conferencing sounds nice, but without documentation, it's fluff. Ask: How often is it happening? What is being taught or corrected? How is progress tracked? I have a mini course on IEP progress monitoring.

3. Push for goals and services in written expression.
You have the samples. You have the documentation. He’s not meeting grade-level expectations independently. Use that language. Ask for a meeting to specifically address writing fluency, spelling, and on-demand writing without supports.

4. Bring in the emotional impact.
Stress, shutdown, refusal—these are all signs that he's not accessing the curriculum in a meaningful, functional way. Emotional distress is educational impact under IDEA.

5. Reframe the “good grades” argument.
Say: “Good grades with heavy scaffolding are not the same as skill mastery. He is not progressing independently or sustainably. That’s not FAPE.”

6. Consider requesting an FBA.
If he's overwhelmed, shutting down, or showing behavior at home tied to school stress, an FBA for emotional regulation in response to school demands might help. It also gives you a documented path toward support if burnout increases.

7. Lean into transition goals as you head toward high school.
That self-advocacy skill you mentioned? That should be in the IEP. You can ask for direct instruction in self-advocacy and executive functioning as he prepares for the next stage.

I know it’s exhausting—and it’s not fair that your son’s strengths are being used against him. But the fact that he wants to be in school, wants to do well, and is finally starting to speak up for himself? That’s a huge win.

You’re not overreacting. You’re seeing the iceberg the school is trying to ignore—and trying to steer your son safely past it. I have sample language for these requests, letter templates, in the IEP toolkit which is being revised right now. You're doing an incredible job.

[AM23]

Lisa - I really needed to hear this. Thank you for next steps, validation that I am not overreacting, and motivation to keep advocating. I purchased your online training a few years ago, and it has been so helpful!

[Carolyn Rowlett]

As always, Lisa has great suggestions.  I'm only adding my two cents as my area of "expertise" is reading.  From what you describe, it sounds like your son may need and probably didn't receive the necessary underlying reading skills - phonemic awareness, phonics/decoding, encoding, etc.  Because students (especially very bright students) are able to mask by memorizing many words and figuring out words from context, deficiencies in these areas often go undetected in elementary school.  But when the student hits the middle and high school years, they can no longer memorize all the words they need to know and they are reading about subjects for which they have no prior context - and the struggles begin.

The school is saying he is on "grade level."  But what do they mean by that?  That he is able to get good grades?  That doesn't necessarily mean he is on "grade level."   Did the academic evaluation the school did dig down to all the necessary subtests such as phonemic awareness, phonics, nonsense words, fluency, etc.?  If not, you need to request an IEE.  It may be that he is NOT on grade level when it comes to these areas.  Although it sounds strange, it is very possible (again, especially for a bright student) to score well in comprehension and not know how to decode, because they are very good at figuring out the passage from context and memorized words.  But this inability to decode will catch up with them.

[JSD24]

I've seen issues like this referred to as 'stealth dyslexia'.  It's really not stealth.  He doesn't decode which is the 'elephant in the room' clue that he's not a fluent reader.  Not sure where you are in PA but there is the Scottish Rite in Harrisburg (there might be other PA locations) that can remediate the reading disability.  There are other groups that can help: IDA - PA and Everyone Reads PA are 2.  There's a public charter school out in Pittsburgh that does a great job with remedial instruction.

What I don't like about the special ed system is that school psychologists cannot diagnose dyslexia.  It's not allowed per their practice act but dyslexia affects 20% of the population (this is per the Connecticut Longitudinal Study).  This causes so many students to not get  the help they need.

Given how your son compensates for his disability, he's probably not going to fall far enough behind to qualify for school based services which is why I'm making suggestions for outside of school.  There are also homeschool programs that don't cost a whole lot.  These include Horton Literacy Primer and Toe by Toe.  Turning on closed captioning on your TV is another way to help teach reading.  Audiobooks borrowed from the library where you see the text and hear it being read can also help.  If you can show the decoding deficit, this might be something the school can give him as an accommodation.  (The test for his disability is the inability to decode nonsense words.  Not sure if this was done with the school's screening.)  As texts get more complicated, he will struggle more & more if he can't decode.

[AM23]

Thank you for your responses and suggested resources. We are in a suburban district north of Philadelphia.  I realize, even though I forget sometimes, that we need to remediate most/all the reading skills outside of school. At home, he is currently doing an online program that teaches reading and spelling with visual phonics, and I am also working with him using a book that teaches the logical patterns and rules underlying English words using letter tiles.

IEE

I have thought about an IEE, but I want to try a couple more things before going that route and make sure I am prepared for likely next steps.

Testing

I am digging through past testing to see if underlying areas of reading and language have been tested.  There are some gaps, and I see no RAN test.  He has a fair amount of variability and discrepancies in his cognitive and achievement testing, but most things fall in the average range with some really high and pretty low scores mixed in. Decoding and phonemic proficiency are average, but discrepant from reading comprehension and verbal reasoning and this could be why he was able to get an accommodation for audiobooks .  I am meeting with the school psychologist to look at how my son did on each part of the Phonemic Proficiency subtest to verify "average" in subskills.  Are some tests of underlying reading skills better at detecting issues than others? (TILLS, WIAT, Woodcock Johnson)

Documentation for college and SAT

 Is the documentation on the IEP of why he needs his reading and writing accommodations important for accommodations in college and on the SAT, or is a history of having and using them enough? (I.e. Do you need a certain diagnosis/identification to receive certain accommodations, and it is therefore important to keep advocating to have SLD in Reading (Basic and Fluency?) and Written Expression checked as categories on his IEP? I’m working on building a history for the need of accommodations on State testing to pave the way for the SAT/ACT. 

When I started this journey 6 years ago, I thought I would feel less confused and frustrated by now!