When can a parent request for summer school for SN child?
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Anonymous
| When can a parent request for summer school for SN child in Fairfax County? |
Anonymous
| A child is eligible for extended school year (ESY) when there is a history/risk of regression over breaks. If, for example, his disability is reading-related, are his skills in September lower than they were in June, that would be. Strong argument that esy is needed. You could make the same argument with regard to social skills too. |
Anonymous
I'm not in VA, so it may be that their law is different, but in both MD and DC (where I've taught) the law says that a student must show regression that is more significant than that of their peers, and that they must take more time to recoup the lost skills than their peers. So, for example, our expectation schoolwide is that kids regain their reading level from the end of the year by the end of first quarter of the next year. So, a special needs student who lost a lot over the summer, but caught up within the first 10 weeks would not qualify. There are other ways you can get ESY. For example, there are exceptions for very severely disabled kids who are making very slow progress. For example, if a high school student has spent 8 straight years working on getting a consistent yes/no response, they won't risk slowing that progress down with a break, this applies to students who are very very disabled. There are rules about critical skills at critical junctures. If a child is on the brink of a major skill that will make an enormous difference in their next placement, you can get ESY. An example might be a child with issues with elopement who is moving from elementary to middle school. Since elopement is a huge safety risk in most middle school settings (more doors, less supervision in the hallways, unfenced playing fields), they may award ESY to solidify this skill if a child is on the brink of mastery. Finally, there are usually rules about kids' whose education has been severely interrupted. A child with an OHI category for cancer, who missed 1/2 the school year would fit in this category. In addition, if a school system gets a migrant child, who hasn't been at a school long enough to document that they regress over breaks, then they may get the benefit of the doubt. |
Anonymous
| I would assume ESY option is mentioned in your DC' IEP. If not, start discussing it with your child's teacher. |
Anonymous
| Social skills do not qualify a child for ESY. It must be academic. |
Anonymous
My kid got ESY over the summer one year. He got a Deaf and Hard of Hearing teacher. He had just gotten hearing aids at age 4, at the end of the school year and he got ESY to help him adjust over the summer so he was ready to learn in the fall. It wasn't much, but I think 1 hour session every 2 weeks. |
Anonymous
Absolutely untrue. It may be a hard case to show need for ESY, but IDEA specifically identifies that disabilities go beyond the mere academic. Look at the autistic kids that are geniuses in academics, but require IEPs to support the functional life skills component -- including the communicating and socializing in the real world component. |
Anonymous
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ESY and summer school are not the same thing. There kids without IEPs invited to summer school. Some kids with IEPs are invited to both ESY and summer school. |
Anonymous
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I have had two children get ESY.
For my oldest - the Principal acknowledged that she should have been picked up earlier when she was evaluated by Child Find. There was also a significant delay in getting her IEP written so services were starting in late April. The Principal offered ESY as basically compensatory services and services so my daughter wouldn't loose any skills being started during April-June. For my youngest - same issue of getting a late year IEP. ESY was offered only for the first year so he didn't regress over the summer on skills being started late in the school year. ESY services are required to be discussed at least once a year and at a point that it is relevant to make a decision (ie. if your child's Annual Review is September obviously this is not the time to be considering ESY. The team should meet again in the Spring to discuss ESY.) |
Anonymous
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We declined ESY the year it was offered. I think he was bridging form 3rd to 4th grade. We live in the McLean High School pyramid. The school offered was Flint Hill in Oakton. There are dozens of ES's that are closer to our house. It would have been a 45 min bus ride from our home school. Summer school is half day.
He needed reading and there are three hours of summer school. They would not guarantee that they would use the reading program he currently was receiving ("It depends on the teacher and the other kids in the class as to which reading program would be used."). The reading program would be for one hour each day. One hour would be for math remediation- which he did not need (he qualified for Algebra I Honors in 7th grade and is currently acing Algebra II Honors in 9th grade). Another hour for social skills. He is shy and that may have helped, but he did need not a social skill class (his brother has been in one -for years). So, an hour and a half round trip on the bus, one hour for reading, one hour for math, one hour for social skills = 4 and a half hours a day for one hour of reading remission in a program that may or may not be the one in which he currently was progressing. For four week out of the 11. We hired a one on one reading tutor three times a week instead for the entire summer- and used our vacation budget to do it. |
Anonymous
That's nonsense. My DS was in ESY last year particularly for social skills delay. He is ahead academically, he came to K already reading, writing and knew basic math. |
Anonymous
| Keep in mind that most buses don't have AC and that your location will not necessarily be the school where your child is currently enrolled. The heat issue has always made me not push for ESY. |
Anonymous
| My dd was recommended for SELTS last year in FCPS. That's summer extended learning. This was the summer between 1st and 2nd. I made her go, but she complained bitterly every day. I told her she didn't have to go this summer if they recommended it for her. I will just have her do more tutoring. She has adhd, so the group setting isn't the best for her. She was there 4.5 hours every day for 3 weeks with lunch and snack in the middle of that. I think for us, that one on one tutoring in her areas of need - spelling and reading will work out better. |
Anonymous
| ESY transportation is a joke. My dd qualified and the bus ride there was 1.5 hours. She was also a first grader and the bus picked her up first, then picked up two middle school children, took them to a middle school, then dropped her off at an elementary school. If your child does need it, I really suggest declining transportation and driving them. |
Anonymous
We had a similar situation with our first grader as well when the system insisted our zip code fell into an ESY program being offered an hour away (even though there was one not 10 minutes from my house -- so much for "individual" programming, right?). I fought it all the way up the chain of command and ended up getting him placed at the ESY center that was 10 minutesfrom our house. I think they had just had enough of my nagging and showing them that I would show they violated his IEP when they did not consider his individual case in making a placement decision. I did agree to drive him, but they reimbursed for that! My point is you can object and demand and hopefully get result. Hoping they don't make the same assinine decisions on placements this year. |