Question 1

Get in touch with us

Accepted Answer

Feel free to reach out to us at any point during the application process. You may begin an application at any time.ADMISSIONS@THELANGSCHOOL.ORGor call us at212-977-7777 (Main Number)917-283-2471 (Admissions)Schedule a 1:1 meeting: https://calendly.com/mark-silberberg/meeting

Question 2

Take a tour

Accepted Answer

Make a date to tour the school and/or attend one of our virtual Open Houses. 
You may begin an application without attending a Tour or Open House first.

Question 3

Apply for Admission

Accepted Answer

Click the button below to access our online application portal. 
You'll be asked to complete a brief inquiry form. 
Once submitted, you'll receive an email verification form with information about how to access the admissions portal.

The application includes a "Release" section that allows us to speak with your child’s school, neuropsychologist, and other critical providers. 
We will work with you to time these conversations.
We understand you may not be ready to tell your child’s current school about your decision to apply to another school. 
There is no assessment or entry exam that is required as part of the application process. 
We do require the submission of a number of supporting documents that are outlined below.

Question 4

Supporting Documentation

Accepted Answer

NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL REPORT
Submit your child’s most recent neuropsychological evaluation. A psychoeducational evaluation is also a good start.

REPORT CARDS
Please send us your child’s school report cards from the last two years, if available. 
Note that we're more interested in the narratives than the grades.

OTHER DOCUMENTS
Submit any other evaluations or documentation (e.g., a digital portfolio) that might help us better understand your child.

Question 5

Why do we ask for a Neuropsych Evaluation?

Accepted Answer

Neuropsychological vs. Psychoeducational Evaluations: What’s the Difference?

In short, a psychoeducational evaluation asks, 
“What is this student’s intellectual and academic ability, and how do they learn?” It’s designed to identify learning strengths and weaknesses, diagnose specific learning disorders, and recommend educational supports or accommodations.
Primarily educational and often used for school accommodations (IEPs, 504s) and academic planning.
Core Questions:
What is the student’s intellectual ability (IQ)?
What are their academic strengths and weaknesses?
Is there a specific learning disorder (e.g., dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia)?
What supports, interventions, or accommodations will help them succeed in school?

A neuropsychological evaluation asks, 
“What is going on in this child’s brain, cognition, and emotional life that affects learning and daily functioning?” It goes deeper and aims to provide a comprehensive picture of how the student thinks, learns, and copes.
Broader, medical + cognitive + emotional focus: Examines brain-behavior relationships, looking deeply at attention, memory, executive function, language, visual-spatial skills, processing speed, and emotional functioning.
Often used when there’s complex or unclear difficulties (e.g., ADHD, autism, TBI, seizures, mood disorders, unexplained academic struggles).
Core Questions:
How are different brain-based cognitive functions (attention, memory, processing, executive function) working?
Are there neurological or developmental conditions (ADHD, autism, brain injury effects, etc.)?
How do emotional or behavioral factors impact functioning?
What is the integrated picture of the child’s cognitive, emotional, and behavioral profile?

Both types of evaluations can look similar on the surface (both often include IQ and academic testing), but neuropsychological testing is more expansive, typically performed by a neuropsychologist and often used when there are complex or overlapping concerns (e.g., ADHD + anxiety, autism, brain injury, or unexplained academic challenges).

Why a Neuropsychological Evaluation Is Preferable for Admission to The Lang School
The Lang School serves twice-exceptional (2e) learners—students with advanced cognitive potential alongside learning, attentional, social-emotional, or other neurodevelopmental challenges. To determine whether a student will thrive at Lang, the admissions team needs a full picture of how the child thinks, learns, and regulates themselves, not just their academic profile.
Why neuropsychological testing provides a better fit:
It clarifies the child’s learning profile beyond IQ and academics – Lang looks for students with superior cognitive strengths (often in one or more subdomains, even if the overall IQ is uneven).
It identifies co-occurring challenges – such as ADHD, autism, or executive functioning weaknesses, which can shape classroom support needs.
It informs individualized programming – The detailed cognitive and emotional data helps Lang design tailored supports and determine whether their model can meet the student’s needs.
It strengthens the case for placement – For families seeking district funding, a neuropsychological evaluation provides diagnostic evidence and a rationale for why a highly specialized setting like Lang is appropriate.

In short:
A psychoeducational evaluation shows what a child can do academically.
A neuropsychological evaluation shows how and why they perform the way they do—and whether Lang is the right fit to support their growth.

Tests Typically Included
Psychoeducational Evaluation
Focuses on intellectual ability + academic achievement.
Common tests:
Cognitive / IQ:
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-V)
Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales
Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (KABC-II)
Academic Achievement:
Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement (WJ-IV)
Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT-4)
Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement (KTEA-3)
Basic Processing Skills:
CTOPP-2 (phonological processing)
GORT-5 (oral reading fluency)
KeyMath-3 (for math skills)
Optional screeners:
Beery VMI (visual-motor integration)
BRIEF-2 (parent/teacher forms for executive function)

Neuropsychological Evaluation
Includes everything in a psychoeducational evaluation, plus a deep dive into cognitive, attentional, and emotional functioning.
Possible components:
Cognitive / Executive Function:
Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System (D-KEFS)
NEPSY-II (attention, memory, social perception, sensorimotor skills)
Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (set-shifting)
Tower of London (planning/organization)
Attention & Processing:
Conners Continuous Performance Test (CPT-3)
Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA)
Processing Speed measures (e.g., WISC Coding, Symbol Search)
Memory & Learning:
Children’s Memory Scale (CMS)
California Verbal Learning Test – Children’s Version (CVLT-C)
Rey Complex Figure Test
Language & Visual-Spatial:
Boston Naming Test
Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-5)
Judgment of Line Orientation
Fine Motor & Visual-Motor:
Beery VMI (detailed scoring)
Grooved Pegboard Test
Emotional & Behavioral:
Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC-3)
Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL)
Reynolds Child Depression and Anxiety Scales
Adaptive Functioning:
Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales (Vineland-3)

Question 6

Application Fee

Accepted Answer

Pay our $130.00 application fee. (Need-based waivers are available.)

Why is there an application fee? The fee covers costs associated with the processing, coordination, and review of the application.

Question 7

Student Visit

Accepted Answer

Our team will review the application and supporting materials. 
If we think Lang may be a good fit for your child, we will invite him/her/them for a full day visit (our Grade 1 visits are often morning half-day visits). 
If we don't think that Lang is a good fit for your child, we'll try to provide recommendations about other programs that may be better aligned to support your child.

Question 8

Final Review

Accepted Answer

Our team will review your child's application, supporting documents, and insights from the visit to determine if The Lang School is a fit. If it is, when we meet to discuss your child’s invitation to enroll at Lang, we will share our insights and the next steps for the educational pathway we'll design for your child.

Question 9

What is twice-exceptionality?

Accepted Answer

Twice-exceptionality refers to students who are identified as having both advanced academic abilities (giftedness) and one or more learning disabilities or differences. These students, often referred to as 2e learners, possess high potential, but also face significant challenges that can affect their academic performance and social-emotional development.

Question 10

How does Lang identify giftedness?

Accepted Answer

Understanding "Giftedness" in Twice-Exceptional (2e) Learners

We define giftedness not simply as uniformly high academic achievement, but rather in terms of asynchronous development, which is marked by advanced intellectual or creative capacities in one or more areas, alongside some combination of significant and identified learning, attentional, or executive functioning disabilities and lagging social-emotional skills.

The Lang School identifies twice-exceptional students as those who:
Show superior performance in one or more cognitive domains, even if their full-scale IQ (FSIQ) may not fall in the gifted/superior range. This is especially common among 2e learners, whose strengths may be obscured by co-occurring disabilities like dyslexia, ADHD, or autism
Show exceptional reasoning or creative abilities often picked up in IQ subtests, creative work, or problem-solving.
May have precocious interests, passions or expertises in specific areas that differentiate them from their age-level peers.
May not present as gifted in traditional school settings as a result of misalignment between their learning profile (strengths and challenges) and the program design.

This is often supported by neuropsychological or psychoeducational testing that specifically identifies the student as twice-exceptional. If this terminology is not specifically referenced in the evaluation, the evaluation minimally identifies the student as gifted and having one or more disabilities that impact learning.
In short: giftedness is contextual, complex, and can coexist with disabilities. The Lang School builds programming that is responsive to both a child’s intellectual strengths and their learning or developmental differences.. With that being said, students who do not demonstrate any areas of superior performance including isolated subtests, may struggle to meet the school’s threshold for identifying as twice-exceptional. Without evidence of this gifted exceptionality, Lang is typically not considered an appropriate placement as our mission specifically serves students who are both intellectually gifted and have identified learning disabilities.

Impact of "giftedness" on Tuition Reimbursement Cases

In private school tuition reimbursement cases (typically under IDEA or New York's “Connors funding” framework), parents must prove that:
The public school did not or cannot offer a free and appropriate public education (FAPE).
A private school placement, like The Lang School, is appropriate to the child’s needs.

Families seeking enrollment at The Lang School argue that:
The public schools do not offer a program specifically designed to meet the needs of twice-exceptional learners, and/or
The public school failed to support their child's dual profile—either neglecting their disability, their giftedness, or both.

Because The Lang School explicitly supports gifted students with disabilities, we can demonstrate that:
The child’s advanced abilities and disabilities are both being addressed.
We provide a strength-based, individualized program without sacrificing intellectual engagement that includes:
Targeted remediation (e.g., for dyslexia or ADHD)
Social-emotional and executive function support
Enrichment and intellectual challenge aligned with areas of strength
Our environment is emotionally safe, academically challenging, and responsive to neurodivergent profiles—something many public placements are not equipped to provide, especially for 2e students.

Public school districts will sometimes argue that a student is “too high-functioning” for a specialized placement. But if the student’s giftedness masks disability, or if their disability limits access to appropriate gifted-level instruction, we can provide compelling evidence through our design that we are uniquely positioned to serve the whole 2e child.

Our recognition that giftedness can look very different in 2e learners helps clarify that traditional programs for either gifted or disabled students alone are insufficient—The Lang School fills a documented gap.

Our definition of giftedness supports our identity as a specialized but appropriate setting for twice-exceptional learners. This framing is critical in tuition reimbursement cases, as it justifies why students who might “look too smart” for special ed, or “too challenged” for gifted programs, are precisely those for whom a dual-support model is essential.

In hearings or settlements, documentation of superior subtest or index scores is often used to support a claim of giftedness—especially when the FSIQ falls outside of the superior range. If no part of the student’s cognitive profile demonstrates superior ability, the legal case for The Lang School as an appropriate, specialized setting becomes harder to sustain.

Our definition of giftedness while broad does look for superior performance in at least one cognitive domain, even if the overall FSIQ doesn’t meet traditional gifted cutoffs. This characterization is central to both admissions and tuition reimbursement cases: it supports the argument that The Lang School offers a necessary and appropriate dual-focus placement for students whose strengths and disabilities are both significant and require simultaneous, integrated support.

Question 11

Characteristics of Twice-Exceptional Learners

Accepted Answer

Advanced Cognitive Abilities:
High levels of creativity and problem-solving skills
Rapid learning and a deep understanding of complex concepts
Intense focus on areas of interest and strong motivation in preferred subjects
Superior performance in one or more areas as reflected in cognitive testing.
	
	Learning Disabilities or Differences:
Dyslexia, Dysgraphia Dyscalculia, ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, sensory processing issues, etc.
Inconsistent academic performance, with significant gaps between strengths and weaknesses
Difficulties with executive functioning, such as organization, time management, and task initiation
	
	Asynchronous Development:
Uneven development across cognitive, emotional, and physical domains. For example, a 2e student might have the intellectual capability of a much older student but the emotional maturity of their chronological age.
This asynchronous development can lead to frustration, social challenges, and misunderstandings with peers and adults.
	
	Social-Emotional Characteristics:
Heightened sensitivity and emotional intensity
Challenges with peer relationships and social interactions
Anxiety, frustration, or low self-esteem stemming from their learning struggles

Question 12

What are some of the struggles that twice-exceptional students experience in different educational settings?

Accepted Answer

General Education Settings:
May not receive the necessary accommodations to support their learning disabilities, leading to underperformance or behavioral issues.
Advanced cognitive abilities might not be recognized or nurtured, resulting in boredom and disengagement.
	
	Gifted and Talented Programs:
Programs may focus solely on intellectual abilities and fail to address learning disabilities, leading to frustration and inability to keep up with peers.
2e students may struggle with the pace and expectations of gifted programs without the necessary support for their learning challenges.
	
	Special Education Programs:
These programs often focus on remediation and may not provide enough intellectual stimulation or opportunities for advanced learning.
2e students might feel out of place or unchallenged, leading to disengagement and a lack of motivation.

Question 13

How do the Learning needs of twice-exceptional students differ from students with identified special education needs?

Accepted Answer

Complex Profile:
2e students have a dual set of needs: nurturing their giftedness while addressing their learning disabilities. This duality requires a balanced approach to both challenge and support them.
Students with identified special education needs typically require focused interventions to address specific deficits, without the simultaneous need to cultivate advanced cognitive abilities.
	
	Differentiated Instruction:
2e students benefit from differentiated instruction that both accelerates their learning in areas of strength and provides targeted support in areas of difficulty.
Special education students primarily need individualized instruction and accommodations to help them overcome their specific challenges.
	
	Social-Emotional Support:
2e students require tailored social-emotional support that addresses their unique sensitivities and intensities, as well as strategies to help them navigate social dynamics and build self-esteem.
Students with special education needs also require social-emotional support, but the nature of the support may be more focused on coping strategies for their specific disabilities.
	
	Advocacy and Self-Understanding:
2e students benefit from learning self-advocacy skills and developing a strong understanding of their own strengths and challenges. This empowerment helps them navigate both academic and social environments more effectively.
Special education students also need self-advocacy skills, but the focus is often more on understanding and managing their disabilities.

Question 14

How does Lang address the needs of twice-exceptional learners?

Accepted Answer

To effectively support 2e students, The Lang School provides:

Individual Learner Profiles- Each student has a unique  learner profile that highlights both strengths, opportunities/areas for enrichment, and accommodations/management needs; strategies to address and support areas of challenge. These are also reflected in each Lang student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP).

Flexible Grouping and Acceleration Options to ensure they are challenged appropriately in their areas of strength.

Targeted Interventions and Supports to address learning disabilities and areas of strength, such as specialized instruction, 1:1 support, and assistive technology.

Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Programs to help them develop coping strategies, resilience, and carryover of social skills.

Professional Development for Educators to understand and implement strategies that meet the complex needs of 2e students.

By recognizing and addressing the unique needs of twice-exceptional learners, The Lang School creates an environment where 2e students can thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.

Question 15

Who is a typical Lang student?

Accepted Answer

Intellectual or creative engagement is key to student fit at Lang, regardless of how traditionally productive a student has been in past school settings. Often, our students are not inspired to challenge themselves in more conventional programs. Before they arrive at our doors, these high potential learners might say school is boring; their teachers might consider them "lazy" or underachieving; these students might resist or even refuse going to class or school altogether. 
 
The typical Lang School student is able — with the collaboration and support of staff, parents, and outside/previous providers — to capitalize on our individualized interventions, groupings of affinity and ability peers, and differentiated classroom-based instruction. 
​
While one or more cognitive subtest scores on formal testing may be in the superior range, it is not uncommon for there to be significant discrepancies between strengths and areas of relative challenge. Our students often display precocious interests and curiosities that are reflected in a preexisting area of passion and commitment.  Our high potential and gifted learners also have identified learning challenges, such as ADHD, anxiety, executive functioning  struggles, language-based, non-verbal, and specific learning difficulties (including Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and Dyscalculia), or Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We can generally provide support for ASD (Level 1) students who don't require significant 1:1 support and/or in-school ABA therapy. 
​
The Lang School is not a therapeutic school designed to support significant emotional challenges and as such pronounced externalizing behaviors, frequent dysregulation, and physical and verbal aggression are uncommon among our students. Lang learners are socially motivated and ready for a rigorous but supportive classroom-based education.

Question 16

Who is a typical Lang parent?

Accepted Answer

The typical Lang School parent is prepared to partner with school staff in supporting their child in a wide variety of ways with the recognition that school is not a stand-alone solution to their child's every challenge or need. Some of our students need targeted supports beyond school in order to reinforce the school's work, generalize emerging skills across settings, or work on challenges that aren't primarily related to school. That said, Lang is committed to being an active and key member of each student's "village" and to ongoing communication with parents and outside providers. Our parents are eager to engage with the school in a team-based process of identifying and meeting their child's needs as they emerge, develop, and shift. Lang offers parent workshops throughout the school year, and our Parent Association serves as a support network for our parent community.

Question 17

What is the tuition?

Accepted Answer

Tuition for the 2026–2027 academic year is $104,800. Lang students receive push-in and pullout, 1:1, dyad, and small-group counseling, sensory/fine motor support, speech therapy, and academic remediation or acceleration, as needed. Tuition for midyear transfers is prorated per school day.

Question 18

How do I pay for it?

Accepted Answer

The parents of our students with IEPs (Individualized Education Plans) and those who are in the process of developing an IEP (The Lang School works with enrolled students/families to ensure that an IEP is in place) successfully seek reimbursement or payment of tuition from the NYC Department of Education. In the service of social justice and to ensure a diverse student body, The Lang School is committed to accepting all good-fit students, regardless of financial need.

A few thoughts from our Clinical Case Manager Judy Nussbaum:

What if I want my child to attend a private school like The Lang School and have the Department of Education pay for the tuition? (pdf)
​
Payment of tuition from the NYC Department of Education (pdf)​
​
Individualized Education Plans (pdf)
​
While The Lang School does not provide traditional scholarships or financial aid, we do support Connors funding on behalf of families who demonstrate need. In any given year, at least one-third of our students' parents are pursuing Connors cases with the DOE.
​
Depending on a Carter case family’s demonstrated financial need, Lang may may under certain circumstances provide flexible payment plans.
​
Whether Connors or Carter cases, The Lang School supports each family and works with their lawyer throughout the impartial hearing process to secure tuition reimbursement. 
​
Some parents supplement these payment options with a K-12 student loan through Your Tuition Solution, a tax free withdrawal from their child's college savings plan, a loan from their 401k, or an interest free loan from The Hebrew Free Loan Society.

Nurturing Promise For Twice Exceptional Learners

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS