A high school building real, structured help for students who struggle with reading and writing is still rare enough to be news. Cardinal Newman High School in West Palm Beach makes the list this fall: its new Cupertino Program gives ninth and tenth graders individualized literacy instruction in reading, spelling, vocabulary, writing, and morphology. One line in the announcement deserves every parent’s attention, though. Entry requires a psychoeducational evaluation confirming a dyslexia or dysgraphia diagnosis, and that gate says more about how our system works than the program itself does.
Cardinal Newman High School in West Palm Beach opens a dedicated literacy track this fall for ninth and tenth graders diagnosed with dyslexia and dysgraphia. Here is what the program offers, and what its diagnosis requirement means for your family.
Common questions
Does my child need a diagnosis before getting help with reading or writing?
How do I get my child evaluated for dyslexia or dysgraphia in the United States?
What should I ask a school about a program like the Cupertino Program?
Will my teenager outgrow dysgraphia or dyslexia?
A Florida high school built a dedicated dyslexia and dysgraphia track for teens. Entry requires a diagnosis first. The teaching works either way, and that difference matters for every parent.
A dedicated literacy track inside a college-prep school
Cardinal Newman, a private Catholic college-preparatory school in West Palm Beach, Florida, opens the Cupertino Program in the 2026-27 school year for ninth and tenth graders diagnosed with dyslexia, dysgraphia, and other language-based learning differences. Students receive individualized instruction in reading, spelling, vocabulary, writing, and morphology, delivered through what the school describes as evidence-based teaching strategies. Amy McGuigan, an Orton-Gillingham certified educator, administers the program.
“As awareness and diagnosis of language-based learning differences continue to grow, the Cupertino Program reflects Cardinal Newman’s commitment to supporting every learner while maintaining our high academic standards,” said school President Charles Stembler.
The name is a signal of its own: the program honors St. Joseph of Cupertino, the patron saint of students and exam takers. To enroll, a family must present a completed psychoeducational evaluation confirming the diagnosis.
As awareness and diagnosis of language-based learning differences continue to grow, the Cupertino Program reflects Cardinal Newman’s commitment to supporting every learner while maintaining our high academic standards
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
The label opens the door. The teaching does the work.
Here is the part the announcement leaves unexamined. The instruction this program offers is the kind with the strongest track record for struggling readers: Galuschka and colleagues’ 2014 review of 22 randomized trials found systematic phonics instruction the only approach reaching statistical significance, and teaching spelling directly is among the best-evidenced practices in the writing literature. That kind of instruction builds skills in any student who receives it. It does not check for a diagnosis before it works.
The diagnosis requirement is an access rule, not a scientific one. Programs need enrollment criteria, and a private school is free to set them. Parents should understand the difference all the same: the evaluation decides who walks through the door, while the structured teaching inside is what changes a child’s trajectory. A family waiting on paperwork is not waiting because the teaching would fail without it.
Two other things this launch quietly confirms. A college-prep school building this track affirms what the International Dyslexia Association’s 2025 definition made explicit when it dropped the old IQ-discrepancy requirement: a capable, bright student who struggles with written work is the expected picture, not a contradiction. And a program aimed at teenagers is itself a correction to the advice parents hear most, wait and see. In the writing research, the difficulties still present at sixteen are more often spelling and composing than handwriting itself, and the students in those studies were receiving explicit instruction throughout. The evidence that instruction helps is considerably stronger than any evidence that waiting does.
Key takeaways
- New track: Cardinal Newman opens the Cupertino Program in fall 2026 for ninth and tenth graders.
- The gate: Enrollment requires a psychoeducational evaluation confirming a dyslexia or dysgraphia diagnosis.
- The bigger truth: Structured literacy teaching builds skills whether or not a diagnosis exists.
What the evaluation requirement means for your family
If a program like this is on your family’s list, the evaluation is the practical hurdle, and United States federal law gives you a route many families never hear about. Every state must identify, locate, and evaluate children who show signs of needing special education, including children enrolled in private schools (34 CFR 300.111). You are entitled to request that evaluation from your local public school district yourself, in writing, and it is free to your family regardless of income and regardless of the result (34 CFR 300.301(b)).
Two protections are worth knowing when you ask. A district that declines must say so in writing, with reasons you are entitled to challenge. And “let’s try some interventions first and see” is not a lawful reason to postpone: federal guidance states that an intervention process must not delay or deny an evaluation (OSEP Memo 11-07). Families who go the private route instead should compare provider types rather than locations, since prices are set by the kind of provider, not by the state you live in. A private report handed to a public district must be considered, though the district is not required to agree with it (34 CFR 300.502(c)(1)).
Then ask the program itself the questions that predict whether it will serve your child: what the daily instruction looks like, how progress will show up in regular classwork, and how the track coordinates with a college-prep course load. And remember the order of operations the evidence supports here. Skill-building starts whenever you decide it does. The evaluation runs in parallel, opening doors to programs and formal supports while the work is already underway.
My hope is that this program helps students build confidence, develop the skills they need to succeed, and recognize that dyslexia is not something to be ashamed of
Laura Lurns · Learning Success expert
You are the person who sees your child’s reading and writing struggle up close, and your child is fully capable of building these skills. The villain here is not one school with an enrollment rule; it is the system-wide idea that help waits politely behind a label while months of skill-building slip past. Structured programs like Cardinal Newman’s are worth pursuing, and the foundations are yours to start today. The Learning Success All Access trial begins with a 45-minute assessment that asks what you are seeing at home across every processing system, and the roadmap that comes back names what to build first. It is a starting point, not a diagnosis, and no substitute for a professional evaluation if your child needs formal accommodations.
See what All Access gives your child
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You describe what you see at home. We turn it into a plan you start this week.
- Answer 5 short questionnaires about what you already notice, 30–45 minutes at your own kitchen table
- Your child sits no test and gets no score: nothing to schedule, nothing for them to dread
- You do the answering, the AI does the writing, and a person reviews it before it reaches you
- Access all 40+ courses instantly: reading, math, focus, processing and more, with new ones added regularly
Why we use AI, plainly: it writes from a knowledge base our team maintains and audits. We work through it line by line and pull anything the evidence stops supporting. The roadmap you get on Tuesday reflects what we corrected on Monday, and a human still reads it before you do.
Your school district must evaluate your child free of charge if you ask in writing, whatever your income and whatever the outcome (US, 34 CFR 300.111 and 300.301(b)). That route takes time and answers a different question than you do. This one starts today, from what you already know.
Your answers stay yours. We do not sell your personal information, and we do not hand identifiable assessment data to outside AI companies to train their models.
A screener is a starting point, not a diagnosis. If your child might need formal accommodations (an IEP or 504 plan), or you suspect a vision, hearing or medical cause, pursue a professional evaluation too. That is the only route to those supports.
References
- Town-Crier (Aug 7, 2026) — Cardinal Newman launches program for students with dyslexia and dysgraphia
- Cardinal Newman High School — Cardinal Newman High School Launches Cupertino Program
