Extended School Year (ESY)
The Bottom Line
The provision of ESY must:
Be a student-specific determination based on specific criteria for qualification
Be reviewed and considered annually
Document specified type of service, including the frequency, minutes per session, duration, and setting in which the services will be provided.
Include documentation in the Prior Written Notice (PWN) that the team considered these services and the specific eligibility determination that was made
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What does it look like to discuss this topic during an IEP team meeting?
Check out these IEP meeting demo video(s) that model how to facilitate the conversation.
Is the Student Eligible for ESY?
Extended School Year (ESY) is school programming that occurs during school breaks, typically during the summer. During the annual IEP meeting, the team determines if ESY is necessary for the student to receive FAPE.
Because efforts are made to meet students' needs during the school year, ESY is the exception, not the rule. Typically, most students will not be entitled to ESY following IEP team consideration.
To qualify for ESY, a student must meet at least one of three possible criteria:
Regression/Recoupment
Self-Sufficiency
Unique Need
(#1) Regression/Recoupment
Significant regression of a skill or acquired knowledge from student’s level of performance on IEP goal that requires more than the length of the break in instruction to recoup. The IEP team must answer the question: Has there been (or is there potential for) significant regression during periods of interruption that need to be recouped?
In applying this standard, IEP teams should consider the following:
ESY may not be limited to children who have actually experienced serious regression, but also include those with a serious potential for regression
The information considered may not be limited to empirical data, but must encompass all relevant data
Consideration must be given to whether the child’s disability is such that he or she cannot reasonably suffer a significant regression
(#2) Self-Sufficiency
The functional skills necessary for the student to achieve a reasonable degree of personal independence, as typically identified in the annual IEP goals for a student requiring a functional/adaptive curriculum. To attain self-sufficiency, a student must maintain skills consistent with the student's IEP goals in any of these skill areas:
Functional academic competency, including: basic reading, writing, concepts of time and money, and numerical or temporal relationships
Basic communication
Physical mobility
Basic self-help, including: toileting, eating/feeding, and dressing
Personal hygiene
Development of stable relationships with peers and adults
Impulse control
Muscular control
(#3) Unique Need
Unique needs refer to situations where failure to provide a service beyond the normal school year will result in permanently losing, or severely limiting, the student’s capacity and potential to acquire skills to benefit from FAPE.
Examples of some (not all) circumstances that may constitute a unique need:
A skill needs to be mastered immediately
If the student does not master the skill immediately, the degree of mastery is likely to be permanently reduced
The child is at a critical stage of development where there is a window of opportunity that will be lost if services are not provided
Changes in a student’s medical, physical, or sensory status make it possible to predict an accelerated rate of learning during the ESY program
Continuous or year-round programming is an integral part of the intervention methodology
Possible Data Sources to Examine for Convergence
Rate of progress on IEP goals
Observation of the student’s regression and recoupment over the summer and/or tendency to regress over extended breaks in instruction during the school year
Experience with other students who have similar instructional needs
Degree of disability
Behavioral or physical problems that limit learning during the school year
Research or development standards
Areas of curriculum that need continuous attention
Vocational needs
Reports from outside agencies and professionals
Grades or state/district test scores
Informal classroom observations
Informal interviews with parents, teachers, and service providers
Documenting the Eligibility Decision
Document the Team's Decision on the IEP 'Services' Page
A determination must be documented even if that determination is that the IEP team must collect additional data ("More Data Needed") in order to decide if the student is eligible for ESY services.
If the IEP indicates "More Data Needed," it must be amended/updated to indicate a clear "Yes" or "No" before the summer. Typically in January and February, case managers are prompted to work with IEP teams to make determinations regarding "More Data Needed" cases.
Service minutes for ESY should only reflect the area(s) of educational need/annual IEP goals where the student demonstrates eligibility for ESY, not necessarily what they will be receiving during ESY programming.
For example, imagine a student who has an annual IEP goal in the area of reading, and in this area she has demonstrated regression/recoupment. She attends ESY programming that is 180 minutes long and includes an hour of reading, an hour of math, and an hour of social skills. In this situation, you would write 60 ESY minutes for reading, not the other areas, because reading is the student's IEP goal and the area where she has demonstrated a need for ESY.
It is often the case that the details of District ESY programming are not known when documenting services on the IEP. Ideally, once the details of programming are more clear, the family should be contacted to offer services and provide more detailed information. This contact can be made by the case manager or district staff responsible for planning the logistics of ESY.
(1) Click the '+ Add' button in the ESY section on the 'Services' page.
(2) Complete the boxes for each service (e.g., Service, Location, etc.). You do not need to complete the "Specific service" box.
Document the Team's Rationale in a PWN
The proposal for ESY services must be provided to parents via Prior Written Notice because parents must receive written notice whenever the district proposes or refuses to begin or change the identification, evaluation, or educational placement of a student or the provision of a FAPE to a student (34 CFR §300.503(a))
Both the action proposed (Question 1) and the Rationale (Question 2) need to be included on the Prior Written Notice when ESY services are being proposed. See examples below re: the answers to the required questions in the Prior Written Notice:
'Regression/Recoupment' Example:
PWN Question 1: Actions Proposed or Refused: "Sam will receive ESY Services in the area of social skills for 20 minutes 2 times per week."
PWN Question 2: Explanation (Why): "Convergent progress monitoring data and input from Sam's service provider indicate that Sam's skills in the area of reading fluency regressed significantly over winter break and it took greater than the length of winter break to recoup previously demonstrated proficiency in this area."
'Self-Sufficiency' Example:
PWN Question 1: Actions Proposed or Refused: "Rachel will receive ESY services in the areas of basic communication for 60 minutes 4 times per week and functional academic skills for 60 minutes 4 times per week."
PWN Question 2: Explanation (Why): "Based on the degree of Rachel's disability and progress monitoring data, the IEP team determined that in order to attain self-sufficiency, Rachel must maintain skills in her IEP goal areas of basic communication and functional academic skills."
'Unique Need' Example:
PWN Question 1: Actions Proposed or Refused: "Jake will receive ESY services in the areas of Language Arts for 30 minutes 3 times per week and Math 30 minutes 2 times per week."
PWN Question 2: Explanation (Why): "Jake needs ESY services in order to receive a Free and Appropriate Public Education based on consideration of interview data, Jake's attendance records, and progress toward his IEP goals. Jake's health condition resulted in excessive absences during the current school year and he needs ESY services to recoup progress toward his IEP goals."
OPTIONAL: ESY Services Form
There is no additional paperwork required beyond the IEP and PWN, however there is a form hyperlinked into the Extended School Year section of the IEP that teams may find helpful in navigating ESY eligibility determinations and planning as a team. This form is an optional tool and can be used at the IEP team's discretion.
OPTIONAL: ESY Goal Documentation
In SpEd Forms, you may check the ESY box in the student's goal page to indicate any goal that will be serviced during ESY. Also, the ESY box for any objective or benchmark that will be addressed via ESY service may also be checked.
*Note: these checkboxes do not print
If you opt to use the ESY hyperlink form, any goal/objective checked on the IEP will automatically populate on the ESY Services Form to indicate that this goal will be worked on during ESY.
✋ Frequently Asked Questions
If a student qualifies for ESY, but the parent says they don't want to send them, should I still check "Yes" for ESY eligibility?
Yes. It is the district's responsibility to determine and document a student's eligibility for ESY, regardless of the parent's intentions to send them to the program.
Once a student qualifies for ESY, do they qualify each year?
Not necessarily. ESY eligibility needs to be determined annually for all students. It is possible for a student to qualify one year and then not qualify the next. Any changes to ESY eligibility must be documented in a PWN.