DALLAS — Megan Howard’s oldest son is the kind of teenager who studies trigonometry purely for fun. Yet, despite his soaring intellect, he found himself paralyzed by the prospect of going to school.
Every morning followed a familiar, agonizing routine. He would meticulously get dressed, only to stand frozen, ultimately refusing to step out the front door. When the family car finally pulled up to the curb of his middle school, he would hesitate, gripped by an invisible barrier, unable to bring himself to step out. Knowing that her son was reaching a breaking point, Howard realized something fundamental had to change, prompting her to pull him out entirely.
Her son, who is diagnosed with both autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), has never struggled with the rigorous demands of homework or advanced academic concepts. What was missing from his educational experience was a vital sense of belonging. Among the roughly 1,000 students populating his mainstream public school, Howard noted, her son simply needed one reliable friend to anchor him—a connection that remained frustratingly out of reach.
Both of Howard’s sons fall into a unique and often misunderstood category known as twice-exceptional learners. These are students who possess intellectual giftedness while simultaneously navigating learning differences, neurodivergence, or developmental conditions such as dyslexia, ADHD, or autism. Nationwide, an estimated 360,000 students make up this distinct population. For their parents, the daily reality is a relentless struggle to find a classroom environment capable of simultaneously catering to high-level academic intellect and complex socioemotional needs.
Enter the Sage School of Dallas, a newly established private institution designed to bridge this wide chasm. It stands as one of the very few schools in the country explicitly dedicated to serving this exact cohort of students.
"Either you can find a place that has rigorous academics, or you can find a therapy school that is really about social-emotional learning," Howard said, reflecting on her years of searching. "There was never a place that did both."
Over the past few decades, society’s understanding of special education has deepened significantly, leading to a notable jump in the number of students qualifying for specialized services. Yet, even with this increased awareness, a pressing question continues to loom over educators, administrators, and parents alike: Are mainstream schools truly equipped to offer the comprehensive support that twice-exceptional learners require?
"Until Sage was around, there wasn’t a school that met all of their needs, so you were always trying to make it work," said Jessica Rall, one of the founders of the Sage School. "These students and families need a place where they don’t just have to make it work."
An ‘Unexpected Combination’ Within One Person
The term "twice-exceptional learner" has steadily gained traction in educational and psychological circles as more research has emerged regarding this unique demographic. The National Association for Gifted Children estimates that approximately 6% of all students currently receiving special education services are also academically gifted.
"It’s a phenomenon," said Jacob Michaelson, a psychiatry and neuroscience professor at the University of Iowa. "There is kind of this unexpected combination within one person of extreme ability in one aspect and extreme disability in another."
Simultaneously, the overall number of students identified with disabilities has shot up across the United States, suggesting that educators have become more adept at recognizing varied learning needs and that parents are increasingly empowered to seek out vital support systems. In the 2014-15 academic year, Texas public schools served 451,600 students with disabilities. By the most recent school year, that figure had surged to 911,300 students enrolled in special education programs across the state.
Despite these broader enrollment increases, twice-exceptional learners frequently fly under the radar. Their high intellect often masks their underlying learning differences, meaning their daily struggles are rarely reflected in standardized test scores. Consequently, overworked educators may pay less attention to their hidden vulnerabilities, Professor Michaelson explained.
"You get the impression: Oh my gosh, this person is really smart," he said. "लेकिन that masks the fact that they do have other deficits that are not as apparent."
Even when parents are fully aware that their child is twice-exceptional, navigating the educational landscape can feel like an impossible puzzle. Families are forced to ask themselves difficult questions: Do these children belong in an advanced gifted and talented program where their social needs might be overlooked, or do they belong in a special education program where their advanced academic potential might not be fully challenged?
Howard never doubted that her oldest son would easily handle the rigorous math classes at the School for the Talented and Gifted, a highly competitive magnet school within the Dallas Independent School District. Her primary fear, however, was that he would fall desperately behind on a social level. Meanwhile, her younger son deals with selective mutism, an anxiety disorder that prevents him from speaking in certain social situations, making a smaller, more supportive group environment an absolute necessity.
"Academics was never the issue for my kids," Howard said. "I needed them to go to school more for social reasons."
A Private School Steps In
Kristen Dauphinais understands the deep frustrations shared by parents like Howard firsthand. Because her own child is a twice-exceptional learner, she knows intimately how difficult it is to find a school capable of addressing both ends of the developmental spectrum.
That shared frustration is precisely why she helped launch an institution designed to do just that.
"We always joke that, like, these kids just have to cook a little differently," Dauphinais said, using a culinary metaphor to describe the school’s educational philosophy. "We’re the oven. We built an oven to cook these kids a little differently."
On a crisp October morning, two high school students hovered around a communal table cluttered with worksheets, scientific calculators, and pencils. As part of a hands-on physics lesson, the boys were tasked with constructing a functional projectile launcher. Bending down to inspect their makeshift machine, they carefully slipped a small ball into place and triggered the mechanism.
To their clear excitement, the projectile sailed across the room toward the far wall. Even better, the distance it traveled fell just short of their initial mathematical estimates, sparking an impromptu discussion about variables and error margins.
Mandi Skerbetz, the head of school, explains that the curriculum relies heavily on "inquiry-based" learning, allowing students to investigate the questions they naturally ask and explore topics as deeply as their curiosity demands. The school day wraps up with a variety of student-led clubs, ranging from chess and Pokémon to campaigns of Dungeons & Dragons.
Skerbetz notes that socioemotional learning is not an afterthought; it is intentionally baked into the daily curriculum. Students participate in structured lessons centered on interpersonal interaction, actively working through communication strategies, role-playing tricky social scenarios, and discussing ways to apply these lessons to their real-world lives outside the classroom.
During a morning session, one student successfully recited back to Skerbetz an acronym the class had spent the month analyzing: THINK. Before speaking in a group setting, he explained, he pauses to ask himself a series of guiding questions: Is what I am about to say true? Is it helpful? Is it inspiring? Is it necessary? Is it kind?
When the school first opened its doors last year, it operated with a microscopic cohort of just four students. Today, enrollment has grown to 11 students supported by four full-time teachers and one part-time educator. Housed within a church building in Far North Dallas, the fully accredited private school serves students ranging from the fifth grade through high school graduation.
Admission to the Sage School is selective, requiring prospective families to go through an application process that weighs cognitive assessments, past academic records, detailed parent reports, student interviews, and campus visits. Annual tuition is set at $35,000.
How Do Other Schools Serve Twice-Exceptional Students?
Before founding the Sage School, its creators reached out to a small network of established twice-exceptional schools scattered across the country to exchange ideas, philosophies, and operational models. Its closest aspirational peer is Bridges Academy, located in Southern California.
When Bridges Academy was first established in 1994, it started with just three students learning inside the founder’s living room. Over the decades, the institution has expanded significantly, growing into a campus serving 200 students alongside an online school, a dedicated research center, and a media site.
Mark Long, the head of school at Bridges Academy, has observed a distinct shift in public discourse, noting that terms like "twice-exceptionality" and "neurodiversity" have become far more commonplace in recent years.
"There’s an understanding around what it is," he said. "There might not be an understanding of what to do with it, but there’s an awareness."
The college-preparatory school’s curriculum is explicitly designed for flexibility. For example, instead of assigning a traditional 2,000-word written essay, an instructor might allow a student to demonstrate mastery of the subject matter by delivering an oral presentation or shooting a short film. Much like the Sage School, Bridges Academy carves out dedicated time within the daily schedule to help students systematically develop essential social skills, such as teamwork and public speaking.
That level of specialized attention, however, also comes with a significant price tag. Annual tuition at Bridges Academy runs roughly $61,200 for the in-person campus and $37,500 for the online program.
Long emphasizes that these high costs do not mean families who lack financial means should be entirely boxed out of specialized support. To that end, Bridges Academy offers consulting services to both public and private schools, finding itself routinely "inundated" with inquiries as school districts nationwide attempt to figure out how best to serve their own twice-exceptional populations.
Public school systems have already made notable strides in certain regions. For instance, Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland is widely recognized for offering some of the most comprehensive public services for twice-exceptional learners, including dedicated self-contained classrooms.
In Texas public schools, twice-exceptional students are legally eligible to participate in advanced gifted programs while simultaneously receiving the specific accommodations outlined in their individualized education programs (IEPs). An IEP is a legally binding document that outlines the precise mechanisms a school district will use to meet a child’s unique needs. Furthermore, Texas state guidelines on serving gifted and talented students dictate that educators are expected to actively modify standard curricula to support twice-exceptional learners.
Several North Texas districts—including Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD and Arlington ISD—have implemented universal screening programs. Universal screening is widely considered a crucial tool for identifying twice-exceptional learners because it tests all students across the board rather than relying solely on teacher referrals, which can often miss gifted students whose learning differences obscure their potential.
"These kids are clever. They’re game-changers," Long said. "We have a moral obligation to make sure that every child across the United States and beyond reaches their potential."
Finding the Dream School
For Megan Howard, the search for an educational home felt like an endless journey of compromises. She considered homeschooling, enrolled her children in traditional public schools, and even tried a private college-preparatory academy. For a long time, the concept of a "dream school" felt entirely out of reach.
When she happened to stumble upon a newly formed campus through a casual internet search, she decided to take a chance. The Sage School, she believed, might finally offer the environment her children desperately needed.
Initially, she harbored understandable anxieties about pulling her sons from established educational tracks to gamble on a brand-new institution. The steep tuition caused immediate sticker shock, particularly given that the school does not yet offer financial aid programs, leading Howard to consult with financial planners to determine if her family could sustainably manage the cost.
Ultimately, she concluded that the sacrifices were more than justified.
When she watches her oldest son deeply engaged in studying calculus, she knows his intellectual capacity is being properly challenged. When she sees that he has successfully built meaningful friendships, a profound sense of relief washes over her. And when she watches him confidently advocate for his own needs, she feels an overwhelming sense of pride.
That transformation is precisely why Howard wishes that every child who needs this type of specialized environment has the opportunity to experience it.
