Compounded Disadvantage: Issues in Addressing the Educational Requirements of Twice-Exceptional Students in Schools

Twice-exceptional learners, students with both giftedness and disability (e.g., ADHD, ASD, dyslexia), face significant educational barriers in schools. This study examined stakeholder perspectives on the most pressing issues affecting twice-exceptional students in Australia. An online survey collected responses from 118 adult stakeholders. Reflexive thematic analysis identified five interconnected themes: absence of national guidelines and supports, inadequacies in educator skills and training, challenges in recognizing multiple exceptionalities, inequitable learning conditions, and significant toll on students and families. The study introduces a novel four-point explanatory model identifying systematic recognition failure mechanisms: masking effects, behavior-first interpretations, output-dependent bias, and executive function misreading. Findings reveal that twice-exceptional learners experience compounded disadvantage through multiplicative effects where each systemic failure amplifies others, creating cycles of educational inequity. The study identified policy asymmetry as a critical structural barrier, where mandated disability support exists alongside discretionary gifted education, inevitably privileging deficit-focused over strengths-based approaches. Results revealed a hidden equity crisis where family resources instead of student need influenced access to appropriate support, creating a two-tiered stratification system, which contradicts fundamental educational equity. Consensus across stakeholders indicated these challenges reflected structural issues requiring mandated national frameworks and coordinated interventions to address inadequacies in responses to twice-exceptionality.