Hello Friends-

I was wondering if anyone out there knew anything specific about the laws/policies/guidelines that public school teachers take when teaching English language learners that have a special need or disability of some sort. I do not mean to be insensitive to any labels I may use; I am just unsure of how else to word my query. If you take offense, I apologize and ask for grace.

My main question is: if an English Language learner has a learning disability, which "direction" do we lead into first--English language teaching or in the direction of their specific IEP?

The same goes for High Ability language learners; how would a teacher go about teaching a gifted English Language Learner? My instinct tells me the answer might be to teach the High Ability student as if they are a native speaker, but something still does not sit right in doing that--I feel like there could be a much better way of going about it. 

Anyone have any thoughts? Any teachers out there? Please help :) 

Thanks!

Kayla