Extended School Year

Extended School Year (ESY) is a term used to describe 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. To qualify for ESY, a student must meet at least one of three possible criteria:

1. Regression/Recoupment

2. Self-Sufficiency

3. Unique Need

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.

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

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

Unique Needs

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

• 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

In SpEd Forms, the services on the separate ESY form will sync onto the Services page of the main IEP form, and vice versa.

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.

Paraprofessional Support

If paraprofessional support is needed for ESY, those services should be documented in the student's IEP in one of the following ways:

1. For students requiring 1:1 paraprofessional support during ESY, those services should be documented in the Child Specific Paraprofessional Support section of the IEP services page, making sure to specify the dates, purpose, and number of minutes. Check the 'Not Applicable for ESY' box next to any paraprofessional support that is not needed during ESY.

2. If a student requires shared paraprofessional support during ESY, those services should be documented in the Accommodations, Modifications, and Supports page of the IEP.