The ABCs of IEPs

By Sheila Wolfe - IEP Services

EXTENDED SCHOOL YEAR (ESY) SERVICES

Although we have barely started the new year, it is time to plan for the summer. Determining if a student has the need for extended school year (esy) services is complicated and often a point of extreme disagreement for the case conference committee. Parents need to know the factors in deciding if a student needs ESY and how to best advocate for their child’s right to these services.

ESY services are intended to prevent students with disabilities from losing important progress made during the typical school year and maintain skills vital to achieving progress during the upcoming school year. Evaluating and determining if a student qualifies for ESY is the responsibility of the case conference committee (CCC). It is important to remember that parents are equal members on the CCC, and the school cannot dictate if a student will receive ESY or not and what services will be provided. In other words, it is not appropriate for the school to announce at a CCC meeting that the school provides an “enrichment program” to its students with disabilities during the summer months and the parent can choose to send their student to this program or decline the services. ESY services must be individualized based on the needs of each student.

Parents can access Indiana’s technical assistance document on determining ESY services at: https://www.doe. in.gov/sites/default/files/specialed/technicalassistance-document-determining-need-extendedschool-year-services-draft.pdf In this document, the following factors have been identified by the courts as being relevant to the determination of ESY services: a. Critical learning needs b. Degree of progress on IEP goals c. Least restrictive environment (LRE) d. Independence from caretakers e. Emerging needs and/or break-through learning opportunities f. Regression and recoupment g. Interfering behavior h. Severity of the disability i. Special circumstances

Each of these determining factors is somewhat subjective and hard to support with raw data. However, as discussed in past articles, appropriate progress reports and data collection on goals is vital to helping the CCC determine ESY services.

Briefly, we will review the most common supporting arguments for establishing ESY services.

REGRESSION AND RECOUPMENT is often the focus of schools when looking at the provision of ESY services. ALL students lose a certain percentage of skills over the summer. Schools should be testing students each year when they return to school to determine an academic baseline of skills. In addition, these academic assessments should be administered around the end of the first semester and the end of the school year. Parents should carefully analyze these assessments to calculate the degree to which their student regresses in skills over the summer. Data is available from each school on the “typical” degree of regression for the student population

and the amount of time it takes an “average” student to recover lost skills after returning to school. If a student with a disability loses more skills and/or takes longer to recover these skills than the “typical” student, an argument can be made that ESY services are needed to prevent this from happening.

EMERGING NEEDS/BREAK-THROUGH LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES is another important factor in establishing the need for ESY services. If a student is acquiring new academic, communication and/or behavioral skills that are critical to continued progress, ESY services should be utilized to make sure these skills are maintained. This is often the only way a student with significant needs can master emerging academic skills, and/or retain behavioral and communication skills.

DEGREE OF PROGRESS ON IEP GOALS or the lack of progress on IEP goals is an important consideration when discussing ESY services. Perhaps the school was using an ineffective methodology to educate a student in math and the school has only recently found a methodology that is effective. It would be important to “recover” the lost educational opportunity during the summer so that appropriate progress can be made. There are many different scenarios that fall under this umbrella, and it is one area that lends itself to data analysis to make the determination.

INTERFERING BEHAVIOR is a factor that is extremely important in the discussion of the need for ESY services. Many students with special needs have behavioral issues that the CCC has struggled to address often for many years. Once a student has a successful behavior intervention plan (BIP) or has achieved increased compliance which allows the student to make progress, it is absolutely essential to maintain those skills over the summer so progress can continue the following school year. It would be inappropriate to “start over” each year trying to address maladaptive behaviors when the student is being successful with their BIP. Keeping the student on a schedule of attending school and complying with school personnel (even if that schedule is modified) will allow the student to continue to make progress.

ESY services are a challenging topic for most CCC. Parents need to understand the purpose of ESY, and the criteria used to determine if ESY is appropriate. The list provided here is not exhaustive. Every child is unique, and parents can advocate based on any need their student has for continued services over the summer. Schools cannot arbitrarily limit services, or the criteria used to determine eligibility for ESY services. The link provided in this article will assist each parent in preparing to advocate for their student. Because this process can often take more than one meeting, it is important to start the discussion early. The CCC should meet no later than late March to begin this process.

Do you need help getting your child with special needs the services they NEED and DESERVE at school?

Professional Parent Advocate with 20 Years Experience

Specializing in Developing IEPs that WORK Experienced in All Disability Categories Autism Expert

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Sheila A. Wolfe

Special Education Consultant

Integrated Educational Programming

sheilawolfe@sbcglobal.net Please email for more information.

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