Twice-Exceptional Student Newsletter: Communicating the Full Picture to Families
Twice-exceptional students are among the most commonly misidentified students in the education system. Their gifts mask their disabilities. Their disabilities mask their gifts. Standard identification processes catch one or the other but rarely both, and standard educational programs serve one dimension but not the whole student.
A newsletter that explains the twice-exceptional profile honestly, describes how the school is responding to both dimensions, and gives families tools to support their child at home is one of the most valuable communications a 2e teacher can send.
What Twice-Exceptional Actually Means
A twice-exceptional student is one who is intellectually gifted and also has one or more disabilities: a learning disability like dyslexia, a neurodevelopmental condition like ADHD or autism spectrum disorder, a processing disorder, a physical disability, or an emotional or behavioral disability. The key feature is the asynchrony: remarkable strength in some areas and genuine difficulty in others, often within the same cognitive profile.
This asynchrony is confusing for students, families, and teachers. A student who can discuss complex ideas with sophistication but cannot write a coherent paragraph confuses everyone. Understanding the cognitive profile explains the apparent contradiction.
Why Standard Approaches Often Fail 2e Students
Standard remediation programs are designed for students whose overall profile is below expectation. They assume a fairly uniform pattern of difficulty. 2e students have peaks and valleys that these programs do not accommodate well. A reading intervention program designed for students reading two years below grade level is often not engaging enough for a cognitively advanced student even if their reading accuracy matches the program level.
Similarly, gifted programs that rely heavily on independent writing or test-based qualification often exclude students whose disabilities create a performance barrier that does not reflect their actual ability.
What the School Is Doing
Your newsletter should describe specifically how the school is addressing both dimensions. Which services address the disability? Which opportunities address the giftedness? How are teachers differentiating to allow the student to access challenging content while accommodating the specific areas of difficulty?
What Families Can Do at Home
The most useful home supports for 2e students are the ones that honor both dimensions: access to advanced content through audiobooks, podcasts, and media when reading is a barrier; rich intellectual discussion; low-stakes exploration of areas of passion and strength; and explicit validation that the student's profile is real, even when it is confusing. Daystage makes it easy to send the structured, nuanced newsletter that 2e families need and that often does not exist in any other form.
Get one newsletter idea every week.
Free. For teachers. No spam.
Frequently asked questions
What should a twice-exceptional newsletter explain to families?
Explain what twice-exceptional (2e) means: a student who is both gifted and has one or more disabilities or learning differences. Describe how the combination creates a profile that is frequently misidentified or underserved, and what the school is doing to support both the areas of giftedness and the areas of disability simultaneously.
How do schools identify twice-exceptional students?
2e students are often hard to identify because their gifts and disabilities can mask each other. A gifted student with dyslexia may read at grade level by compensating through verbal intelligence, but not at the level their verbal abilities would predict. Psychoeducational evaluation that looks at the full cognitive profile rather than just achievement scores is the most reliable identification tool.
What are the most common frustrations families of 2e students have with schools?
Families most often report that schools see either the disability or the giftedness but not both simultaneously. The gifted program says the student does not qualify because of low reading scores. Special education says the student does not qualify because IQ is too high. The 2e student falls through the gap. A newsletter that names this problem directly and describes the school's approach to both dimensions builds trust.
What should the IEP for a twice-exceptional student address?
The IEP should address the areas of disability with the same rigor it would for any student, while also including plans to develop and extend the areas of giftedness. Twice-exceptional students should not receive only remediation. Engaging their strengths is both motivating and developmentally appropriate.
How can Daystage help teachers communicate with families of twice-exceptional students?
Daystage lets teachers send structured, nuanced newsletters that address the complexity of the 2e profile without oversimplifying, sent directly to families as formatted emails.
Adi Ackerman
Author
Adi Ackerman is a former classroom teacher and curriculum writer with 8 years in K-8 schools. She writes about school communication, parent engagement, and what actually works in real classrooms.
More for Special Education
Inclusion Classroom Newsletter Guide: Communicating Across All Families
Special Education · 6 min read
Special Education Behavior Support Newsletter: What Families Need to Know About Positive Behavior Supports
Special Education · 6 min read
Special Education Transition Age Newsletter: Preparing Families for the Years Before Adulthood
Special Education · 6 min read
Ready to send your first newsletter?
3 newsletters free. No credit card. First one ready in under 5 minutes.
Get started free