The difference is in the 2e. My son has special needs and an IEP. So-called "giftedness," believe it or not, is actually a part of his disability. He is not developing "normally" (academics very, very high, social IQ very low) and the school has to find ways to accommodate his disability. If, for example, he can better access the school curriculum if he is given challenging work in a specific subject area, the school can be asked to give him more challenging work in that specific subject area. They may refuse, because it's more work for them. But the law in on my son's side.

Our school has no system in place to accelerate anybody in a subject. But school policies of this kind are not carved in stone. They are fluid and flexible, although the schools generally try like hell to claim they can only do this and not that. They can accommodate these kids if they care to. It's just more work, and it requires progressive, creative thinking. Good luck with that in the average public school, at least where I live (in the South).

High-ability kids with ASD almost always get the short end of the stick. A "normal" highly gifted kid gets a lot more freedom in school (he can participate in anything w/o an aide, for example), and a "low functioning" child with a disability gets a completely individualized curriculum, as per the IDEA. My son gets a dash of each, and it's not particularly effective.

We could ask our school to do more testing, but just last year they did that for the G/T program, so I doubt they'll want to spend more time testing him. The G/T program in our school is a pull-out twice a week that focusses on math and reading. The same stuff they do in the general ed class because it's what's on the stupid standardized tests the kids all have to take for NCLB. My son needs a break from constant math/reading test prep that goes on year after year. It's boring him to tears, literally.