School hasn’t been easy for one Colorado teenager with severe dyslexia.

“You can see a little bit of the pain that it’s caused him over the years,” says Lissa True, as she reflects on her 18-year-old son Anthony’s upcoming high school graduation. “He’s got a few scars, but the bigger emotion is just being incredibly proud of his accomplishment and looking forward to the future and to life where he is going to be exceptionally successful, even though in school some people may look at him and say he wasn’t as successful. Not an honor roll student, but you know what, that’s OK with us.”

Her son will be studying diesel mechanics at a trade school following graduation.

The graduation rate for students with learning disabilities is much lower than the national average, according to a 2014 report from the National Center for Learning Disabilities. Louisiana, Nevada and South Carolina are the only states with higher dropout than graduation rates for these students.

The report defines learning disabilities as differences in the brain that affect how someone learns, understands or communicates information. Common learning disabilities include dyslexia, which has to do with reading, and dyscalculia, which deals with math. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, known as ADHD, is not a learning disability, but a related condition.

Below are some of the challenges parents face when dealing with their teenager’s learning disabilities.

1. Raising teens with growing independence: Teens with learning disabilities are just like those without these issues. “They want the independence and they deserve it and they should have it,” says True, who also has a daughter, Victoria, 15, who is mildly dyslexic.

“As a parent, we have to have the wisdom to be able to step back and give that to them, while still just gently guiding them into the things that they need to do,” she says.

[Read more about how as teens gain independence, parents seek to stay connected.]

“I think most of the responsibility on parents is to make sure that they have the tools and the skills that they need to be able to manage themselves,” she says.

That has included helping her children become advocates for themselves at school to make sure they get the accommodations they need to be successful, she says.

2. Trying to help teens when they aren’t eager for help: Sometimes high schoolers stop asking for or resist using supports, like working with a special education teacher in a separate setting, that may make them stand out, says Bob Cunningham, an education adviser for Understood.org, an online parenting resource for learning and attention issues.

“That can be really, really frustrating for parents who have spent so much time working with schools and working with independent practitioners to get those kind of supports in place for a child with a learning disability,” he says.

This could lead to poorer academic performance, which could cause students to feel bad about themselves, he says.

Students whose learning issues don’t surface until high school may not be eager to participate in evaluations and work with specialists, he says.

When they are younger, students who are bright and have good speaking skills may be able to hide any learning struggles more easily, he says.

3. Helping plan for a teen’s life after high school: During the high school years, the biggest challenge for Georgia mom Laurie Smith has been preparing for her children’s transition to adulthood.