Is it worth it to fight for ESY?

[Anonymous]

My kid has never been offered ESY and I wasn't bothered about that but his path is not as smooth as it once was and I suspect his teacher might be amenable this year. If he doesn't go to ESY he will
go to a private camp that costs us an arm and a leg that does do some work on the skills he's working on at school plus some fun things.

In the past I wrote ESY off thinking about the hot busses and hot schools but the therapy bills are really burdensome at the moment and I'm wondering if I should make a case for it. If your kid goes are you glad he went? Were you happy with the team? Was it even all day or half day? Thanks.

[Anonymous]

We're in FCPS We advocated strongly for EST and I've got about 4 years of experience with ESY. Full disclosure - I'm jaded and cynical. ESY was completely worthless. FCPS claims a child's individual needs will be met through ESY, they shoehorn kids into an existing program no matter their needs. The students in the ESY have differing goals, the teacher is given little time to prepare for ESY and the kids tend to be those with more significant challenges. Our kids got nothing out of it and we stopped considering it.

[Anonymous]

What county are you in? I think each area has a different program.

[Anonymous]

OP here. MCPS.

[Anonymous]

In mcps it is never all day. Half day.

[Anonymous]

Really depends OP. The therapists aren't great. I wouldn't do it for the therapy, I would do it if your kid's regular teacher is teaching.

[Anonymous]

We have had ESY in Mo Co since my child was in PEP. I would not approach ESY as if it is a skills building exercise or a therapeutic management arena. ESY is not meant to build skills; it is meant to keep certain children from extreme skills loss over the summer.

Our experience has been that if ESY is held at my daughter's school with her regular teacher, she gets something out of it. If it is at another school with a teacher who does not know her, it is basically warehousing. The therapists are itinerant and don't really know the children. Time in therapy is minimal.

The schools are air conditioned.

[Anonymous]

We did it last year. They grouped him with really low functioning kids. A lot of hitting and yelling that was not present before. Never again for us. FCPS. The teachers, the admin, the BCBA were awesome, but too short a time period i guess to get proper placement.

[Anonymous]

It is a joke. I don't know how they get away with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid has never been offered ESY and I wasn't bothered about that but his path is not as smooth as it once was and I suspect his teacher might be amenable this year. If he doesn't go to ESY he will
go to a private camp that costs us an arm and a leg that does do some work on the skills he's working on at school plus some fun things.

In the past I wrote ESY off thinking about the hot busses and hot schools but the therapy bills are really burdensome at the moment and I'm wondering if I should make a case for it. If your kid goes are you glad he went? Were you happy with the team? Was it even all day or half day? Thanks.

Son attended esy for 3 years com A.

He doesn't learn anything really just meet new friends. He meet a "hot girl friend " last year. But teachers don't really teach doing esy they just "chilll

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid has never been offered ESY and I wasn't bothered about that but his path is not as smooth as it once was and I suspect his teacher might be amenable this year. If he doesn't go to ESY he will
go to a private camp that costs us an arm and a leg that does do some work on the skills he's working on at school plus some fun things.

In the past I wrote ESY off thinking about the hot busses and hot schools but the therapy bills are really burdensome at the moment and I'm wondering if I should make a case for it. If your kid goes are you glad he went? Were you happy with the team? Was it even all day or half day? Thanks.

If your son is in a full-day special ed classroom (autism, scb, etc) you would be offered half day, most likely. If he's homeschool model he might get a few hours a week, perhaps even less. I've heard kids that get it usually get half of their IEP time or less. They pick a couple of goals to do maintenance work on to reduce loss over the summer, but they don't teach new skills. PPs are right that it's done by grouping random kids (unless they have a specific autism class) and then whatever teachers or paras signed up to work that year. It's honestly not the best use of your child's time, in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

My issue with ESY and summer school is there is no quality control/accountability even though tax payer dollars are used. Over half the time you have good people operating with integrity, but too often you have people who don't care and/or aren't skilled enough to do what is promised.

[Anonymous]

As a teacher who taught ESY (elementary, autism, FCPS), it's tough to have it be worthwhile - I'd guess it's generally not unless the teachers or therapists are people who know your kid, either the regular providers or otherwise know them because they're in the same school. It's what, 4 weeks, right? It takes a few days, at least, to get the lay of the land, get kids settled etc. So at most you have 3 weeks to "work" on things, and it's only half day. It's a new mix of kids, so not infrequently there's some clash. It's often assistants who've never worked with the teacher before. There's not much advanced notice/info on kids. But it's a bit like the beginning of the year - you can't hit the ground running, it takes a while to get things started, and at only 4 weeks, it's really not enough time to be useful. It *may* be enough time to maintain skills, but I doubt that, when summer is 10 weeks long. Kid's still have a good 4-5 weeks afterwards to lose it all. And it's definitely one size fits all, which is maddening, and not in technical compliance with the law, but what is these days? So even with the best of people and the best of intentions it's an uphill battle. I don't know if that translates to other grades, though I imagine it's about the same for other disabilities in elementary, given the kids likely to receive ESY. If you want some work on some skills to maybe maintain them, do it. But I'd guess (or hope) your kid gets much more out of the camp you usually send him to in terms of forward movement. That said, those camps are ridiculously expensive, and I've never been sure (as I contemplate sending my kid to one) if they're worth the money. I guess it depends on the camp, how long it is, etc.

[Anonymous]

ESY is not a skill builder. It's a stopgap. You don't take leaps forward in ESY.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a teacher who taught ESY (elementary, autism, FCPS), it's tough to have it be worthwhile - I'd guess it's generally not unless the teachers or therapists are people who know your kid, either the regular providers or otherwise know them because they're in the same school. It's what, 4 weeks, right? It takes a few days, at least, to get the lay of the land, get kids settled etc. So at most you have 3 weeks to "work" on things, and it's only half day. It's a new mix of kids, so not infrequently there's some clash. It's often assistants who've never worked with the teacher before. There's not much advanced notice/info on kids. But it's a bit like the beginning of the year - you can't hit the ground running, it takes a while to get things started, and at only 4 weeks, it's really not enough time to be useful. It *may* be enough time to maintain skills, but I doubt that, when summer is 10 weeks long. Kid's still have a good 4-5 weeks afterwards to lose it all. And it's definitely one size fits all, which is maddening, and not in technical compliance with the law, but what is these days? So even with the best of people and the best of intentions it's an uphill battle. I don't know if that translates to other grades, though I imagine it's about the same for other disabilities in elementary, given the kids likely to receive ESY. If you want some work on some skills to maybe maintain them, do it. But I'd guess (or hope) your kid gets much more out of the camp you usually send him to in terms of forward movement. That said, those camps are ridiculously expensive, and I've never been sure (as I contemplate sending my kid to one) if they're worth the money. I guess it depends on the camp, how long it is, etc.

This is OP. Thanks for your post. The camp my kid goes to is 4 weeks because I don't see how you do much in less than that yet I see so, so many camps for 1 week and they are so expensive too. I don't see how you can accomplish much in a week, even if it has only a single focus.