By Sheila Wolfe IEP Services
THE ABCs OF IEPs COMPENSATORY SER VICES
As families are finally feeling some relief from the threat of COVID, many of our students with special needs have not recovered from the lack of educational and therapeutic services received during the last year and a half of school. Remote learning is typically not as effective for students as in-person learning. This is even more true for students with special needs. In many cases, schools also did not deliver all the services required by their students’ IEPs. This could
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40 Special Needs Living • March 2022
entitle students with IEPs to compensatory services from their school system. Last month we covered Extended School Year (ESY) services. Compensatory services differ from ESY. Compensatory services are therapies and other special education services that a school failed to deliver as required by the IEP during the “regular” school year. When this occurs, parents can arrange for the services to be “made up” during the summer (in most cases) or after school (if available). As an example, let’s imagine Sally, a student on the autism spectrum, has an IEP which provides speech services from the SLP (speech-language pathologist) in a small group setting for 30 minutes each week to receive instruction and practice on social skills. Delivering these services in a remote setting would be very difficult, if not impossible, to do. Sally’s parents could ask for compensatory services to recover the missed services designed to learn and practice social skills with her peers. In another example, Kenny, a student with multiple disabilities who is confined to a wheelchair, has an IEP which includes 30 minutes per week of direct services from a physical therapist (PT) to improve his core strength. Kenny’s parents can ask that any services not delivered during the school year be scheduled for the summer. If there isn’t enough time to complete the lost services during the summer, they could be made up, in part, during the following school year. As in all matters concerning special education, every student’s situation is unique. The point of this article is to inform parents that the unusual circumstances faced by
