Extended School Year

[Anonymous]

My DC's first IEP meeting was in July, we transitioned from MoCo Infants and Toddlers back then. For ESY, they checked N/A since it was the initial IEP. How do I find out/request consideration for ESY? The IEP has social and speech goals, the eligibility is under ASD diagnosis. Child will be 4 in summer, so we're talking PEP.

[Anonymous]

They review this at the annual review or in March/April if the annual has not yet occurred.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They review this at the annual review or in March/April if the annual has not yet occurred.

The annual has not occurred yet. How does it happen? We request it? They notify us? It's been only 6 months since the initial IEP meeting to establish eligibility/placement/initial goals.

Will they also update goals and formulate new once in March/April for the following academic year? That's more than 6 mo in advance, we do not have a definite idea where he will be at by next September developmentally. Since the goals are very specific, how do we not under- or over-shoot ?

Sorry for idiotic questions, first timer here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They review this at the annual review or in March/April if the annual has not yet occurred.

The annual has not occurred yet. How does it happen? We request it? They notify us? It's been only 6 months since the initial IEP meeting to establish eligibility/placement/initial goals.

Will they also update goals and formulate new once in March/April for the following academic year? That's more than 6 mo in advance, we do not have a definite idea where he will be at by next September developmentally. Since the goals are very specific, how do we not under- or over-shoot ?

Sorry for idiotic questions, first timer here.

Annual review is automatically set. School will notify you. Goals go into effect immediately and carry over for a year. If you need to make changes before a year, either party can request another meeting. The standard for ESY is whether there is a reason to expect regression without it.

[Anonymous]

Reach out to your case manager and ask about ESY.

[Anonymous]

Normally ESY is not granted unless your kid has huge delays.

[Anonymous]

You could add “and maintain “ at x measurement system (I.e. level, percentage, etc) so you can argue at the IEP that ESY services would be necessary to fulfill the aspect of maintaining. Even better is if you can write specific numbers of levels for specific programs before x date (usually start of following school year) (I.e. will complete 25 levels Language for Learning by DATE achieving 90% accuracy on each level). Here if you write the number high enough where they can’t achieve it during normal school year then esy could be justified. Best to focus on a couple key basic skills and some social skills during summer. It can be short staffed and not always well managed. If you have a 1:1 it can be a great experience though. You might have more luck enrolling in summer camp for social skills and hire a 1:1 to go with them. If you can get specific programs written into IEP such as Direct instruction that can easily be completed by any teacher after a few hours training you will get more out of it too.

Many options, hire a lawyer or advocate if you can afford to.

www.wrightslaw.com

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You could add “and maintain “ at x measurement system (I.e. level, percentage, etc) so you can argue at the IEP that ESY services would be necessary to fulfill the aspect of maintaining. Even better is if you can write specific numbers of levels for specific programs before x date (usually start of following school year) (I.e. will complete 25 levels Language for Learning by DATE achieving 90% accuracy on each level). Here if you write the number high enough where they can’t achieve it during normal school year then esy could be justified. Best to focus on a couple key basic skills and some social skills during summer. It can be short staffed and not always well managed. If you have a 1:1 it can be a great experience though. You might have more luck enrolling in summer camp for social skills and hire a 1:1 to go with them. If you can get specific programs written into IEP such as Direct instruction that can easily be completed by any teacher after a few hours training you will get more out of it too.

Many options, hire a lawyer or advocate if you can afford to.

www.wrightslaw.com

Many thanks, PP, this is very helpful and insightful. Yes, we're considering social skills camps. The kiddo is fairly high functioning (other than social - not interested in peers at all), so it would be hard to justify, and also, if it's a short staffed situation, I'd rather not, we can swing the camps financially.

[Anonymous]

What PEP class if your child in?

ESY is not that great. If you can afford it, send your child to a social skills/ speech language camp over the summer

[Anonymous]

Definitely don’t push for ESY if you have other summer options. Your child will, most likely, benefit much more from not going.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You could add “and maintain “ at x measurement system (I.e. level, percentage, etc) so you can argue at the IEP that ESY services would be necessary to fulfill the aspect of maintaining. Even better is if you can write specific numbers of levels for specific programs before x date (usually start of following school year) (I.e. will complete 25 levels Language for Learning by DATE achieving 90% accuracy on each level). Here if you write the number high enough where they can’t achieve it during normal school year then esy could be justified. Best to focus on a couple key basic skills and some social skills during summer. It can be short staffed and not always well managed. If you have a 1:1 it can be a great experience though. You might have more luck enrolling in summer camp for social skills and hire a 1:1 to go with them. If you can get specific programs written into IEP such as Direct instruction that can easily be completed by any teacher after a few hours training you will get more out of it too.

Many options, hire a lawyer or advocate if you can afford to.

www.wrightslaw.com

Many thanks, PP, this is very helpful and insightful. Yes, we're considering social skills camps. The kiddo is fairly high functioning (other than social - not interested in peers at all), so it would be hard to justify, and also, if it's a short staffed situation, I'd rather not, we can swing the camps financially.

Regression is insufficient to qualify for ESY. All kids, gen ed and special ed, show some regression over the summer. The IEP goals need to bill critical to a essential life skill. For speech/language this means severe unintelligibility or initiating use of an AAC device. Both of these would interfere with basic communication. Getting ESY for speech/language otherwise would be unusual. The school will contact you for a meeting. Annual reviews that first were held in summer months or Sept/Oct are typically pushed ahead to be held in the spring so current teachers can give input. In the summer they wouldn't be available and in the fall new teachers would barely know your child. Goals are easily adjusted if needed; a meeting isn't even necessary for that if you are in agreement.

[Anonymous]

Have you ever seen an ESY classroom? I walked in to my child's ESY class several times one year unexpectedly to pick him up and the staff was on their phones while the kids were on their own. They weren't doing any work or anything, everyone was just there like a sad daycare. After that, I stopped sending my son to ESY because it was completely useless.

[Anonymous]

ESY is for critical life skills; the county is cracking down on who should be offered ESY. Just from what you describe, your kid doesn't qualify.

[Anonymous]

We did for 4 years and they never did anything, they only learn on skills so it’s only needed if they forget their basic skills

[Anonymous]

I think the best reason ror ESY is to keep the kid in the rhythm of school, making the fall transition much easier.