Frequently Asked Questions

Many 2e students go unidentified. The identification process is complicated, and most school districts don’t have a system for identifying 2e students. One of the biggest obstacles is that one exceptionality can hide the other — a school focused on a student’s ADHD, for example, may never think to look for their high intelligence underneath it.

• First and foremost, 2e students need a supportive learning environment that addresses all of their exceptionalities — not just one at a time.
• Teach to their strengths. Let them dive deep into their areas of interest, and use that engagement to support learning in other areas.
• Address social and emotional needs. Provide direct instruction in valuing differences and learning styles, pragmatic language, flexibility, and defining excellence through growth rather than perfectionism.
• Support executive functioning. Provide direct instruction in organization, time management, and study skills.

There are too many characteristics to list — every 2e student is unique. A few common ones include:

• Above-average critical thinking and problem-solving
• Above-average sensory needs and reactions to sounds, smells, tastes, and other sensory input
• Low self-esteem, often associated with perfectionism
• Poor social skills
• An extreme ability to work deeply in areas of interest

Twice-exceptional refers to individuals who possess both high intellectual abilities and one or more neurodivergent conditions. These conditions can include, but are not limited to:

• Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
• Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
• Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD)

Approximately 6% of all K–12 students. The exact number of twice-exceptional students is unclear, since this data isn’t captured by federal or state departments of education. However, combining data from the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), it’s reasonable to estimate that 6% of all school-age students are twice-exceptional.

Sage serves students in grades 6–12.

Our student-to-teacher ratio is 10:1. We intentionally keep our class sizes small so that we can truly individualize instruction and create an environment where students build strong, lasting connections with both staff and peers.

Yes — we offer private tours, which can be scheduled by emailing info@sageschooldallas.org. We also host multiple Open Houses for prospective families throughout the school year.

Yes — we offer rolling admissions and are able to enroll students throughout the school year, as long as space is available.

Our process is relatively simple and can typically be completed within a few weeks. You can apply any time during the year.

Not at all — that “peaks and valleys” profile is actually common among twice-exceptional students, and it’s exactly what our admissions process is designed to look for. Rather than judging a single overall score, we look at each index and subtest individually to identify areas of real strength.

Your application will be reviewed by our admissions team. If we determine that your child’s profile fits within our program, you’ll be asked to schedule a parent interview, giving us the chance to learn more about your child. Following the interview, we schedule a two-day student visit, so your child can experience the Sage School difference for themselves.

That’s okay — it’s not a barrier to applying. We’ll ask for any psychoeducational testing already done at your child’s current school. If an IQ test wasn’t part of that testing and we feel we don’t have enough information about your child’s cognitive or academic profile, we may ask you to have one administered as part of the process.

All students enrolled at Sage are required by Texas law to be appropriately immunized. Students will not be admitted to class if all required immunization documentation is not completed and on file with the school or if the student is not up to date on required immunizations by the first day of school. Sage does not accept Affidavits for Immunization Exemption for Reasons of Conscience. Medical exemptions are accepted only when supported by written documentation from an allergist/immunologist or a hematology/oncology physician

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At this time, Sage does not offer a tuition assistance program, and we do not participate in TEFA, the state’s school voucher program.

Twice-exceptional, or “2e,” students are both intellectually gifted and neurodivergent — kids who might have an extraordinary gift for pattern recognition or spatial reasoning, alongside ADHD, autism, dyslexia, or another learning difference. These are some of the brightest, most creative kids in our schools. And for a long time, they had nowhere to go.

Gifted programs weren’t built to support their social and emotional needs. Learning difference schools weren’t built to challenge them academically. So families were stuck choosing one or the other — challenge or support — when their child needed both, at the same time, from people who understood how to give it to them.

We estimate there are roughly 50,000 of these students in North Texas alone. Before Sage, there wasn’t a single college-prep school in Texas designed specifically for them.

We started Sage because that gap shouldn’t exist. No family should have to choose between a school that sees their child’s brilliance and one that supports their needs.

1. We see the whole child — not just one side of them. Most schools are built for one type of learner: either academically gifted, or in need of extra support. Sage was built for kids who are both at once. Our students are intellectually gifted and neurodivergent — bright, capable, creative kids who also need real support with things like executive functioning, anxiety, or attention. At Sage, that’s not a contradiction we’re trying to work around. It’s exactly who we’re built for.
2. Small class sizes and individualized instruction, for real. Parents consistently tell us this is what changes everything for their child: a class size small enough that teachers actually know how your kid learns, and a curriculum that flexes to meet them there — challenging where they’re ready to be challenged, supported where they need support.
3. Teachers who understand twice-exceptional kids specifically. Our teachers aren’t generalists doing their best with a learning difference they don’t fully understand. They’re trained and experienced in supporting twice-exceptional, ADHD, and autistic learners specifically. That expertise shows up everywhere — in how a lesson is taught, how a hard day is handled, and how a student’s strengths get noticed instead of overlooked.

The word that comes up again and again is belonging. Parents tell us their child feels truly understood at Sage — often for the first time. They talk about a school culture that’s warm, accepting, and genuinely built around who their child is, not who a typical curriculum expects them to be.

They also tell us they can feel the balance working. Their child is being challenged academically and supported emotionally, at the same time, without one getting sacrificed for the other. And they consistently point to the sense of community — the relationships with teachers, the connections with other families who get it — as something that changed how their whole family experiences school.

Most schools are built to sort kids into one track or another — and twice-exceptional kids don’t sort neatly into either one. A gifted program sees the brilliance and misses the struggle. A learning support program sees the struggle and misses the brilliance. Often, the two mask each other entirely: a school looking for a learning difference doesn’t think to look for giftedness, and a school looking for giftedness doesn’t think to look for what’s underneath it. As one Sage family put it: “Gifted masks disability — disability masks gifted.”

At Sage, we built our approach around seeing the whole student, all at once. That means:

• Intellectual rigor — a college-prep curriculum that challenges the top 2% of intellectual potential, because these kids deserve to be pushed.
• Targeted social-emotional learning — woven into every hour to build resilience and self-awareness.
• Executive functioning support — the bridge between brilliant ideas and the organized output it takes to get them onto paper, into a project, or through a deadline.
• Intentional community — a place where students and families find people who understand them, without having to explain themselves first.

At Sage, being twice-exceptional isn’t a challenge to be managed. It’s a potential to be unlocked.

Two things tend to surprise families most once they’re inside the Sage community:

How much their child opens up. Many students arrive having spent years feeling like they had to hide part of themselves — either masking a struggle to seem more “typical,” or dialing down their intensity to fit in socially. Parents are often surprised by how quickly that guardedness starts to soften once their child realizes they don’t have to do that here.

How hands-on and real the learning is. Sage leans heavily into project-based, experiential learning — things like independent research, creative technology projects, and market-based learning that mirrors real-world skills. Families used to a more traditional, worksheet-and-lecture model are often surprised by how much their child lights up when learning looks like doing instead of just listening.

Sage was founded by three women who saw the same gap from three different angles — as parents, and as educators.

Two of our co-founders, Jessica Rall and Kristen Dauphinais, are parents of twice-exceptional children. They know firsthand what it feels like to watch a bright, capable kid struggle in a school that wasn’t built for how their mind actually works. Our third co-founder, Dr. Mandi Skerbetz, has spent over twenty years as a special education and gifted teacher, and for just as long she dreamed of leading a school where a student’s strengths came first — not their struggles.

That’s the school they built.