Extended School Year Services

Extended School Year Services All students with disabilities must receive a free appropriate public education. Some students with disabilities may require special education and related services beyond the 180 day school calendar. Service beyond the 180 day school calendar is called Extended School Year (ESY) services. All students with disabilities must be considered for ESY, but not all students with disabilities need ESY. Most children with disabilities, like their peers without disabilities, experience some degree of skill loss during vacation periods or other long term absences from school. All students will require a period of time to relearn lost skills after periods of vacation or long term absence. But some students with disabilities, however, may experience more significant skill loss during vacation periods and other long term absences. These students also may require an extraordinary period of time to relearn lost skills. The purpose of ESY services is to prevent or slow severe skill loss caused by an interruption of special education services during extended periods when school is not in session and to reduce the period of time to relearn a lost skill. The purpose is not to enhance existing skills or to learn new skills. The need for ESY services is based on a construct of skill regression (loss) and a child's capacity for recoupment (relearning) of the lost skill. ESY services may be provided only when it is determined that a child might regress to such an extent in a critical skill area that relearning of the lost loss would require an unusually long period of time to relearn the skill or make it unlikely or impossible to relearn a lost skill. Also within this construct, consideration is given to skills gained during the school year that will be significantly jeopardized or to an emerging skill that will be lost without services during school calendar breaks. When it is determined by the IEP Team that a child is in need of ESY, the services will be proposed on an IEP and at no cost to parent. The need for ESY must be considered for each student with an IEP, determined on an individual basis and will not be delivered solely on the basis of a disability category or the severity of the disability. ESY for students with disabilities provides a different focus than general summer school programs. ESY provides an extension of IEP services beyond the 180 day school calendar and is intended to address significant skill loss and an extraordinary amount of time to relearn a lost skill. National, state and local incidence information suggests that between 1% and 2% of students with disabilities require ESY services. Determination of the need for ESY services is the result of a thorough analysis of formal and informal assessment data collected by the IEP team. There is no precise measure of significant loss and extraordinary time to relearn lost skills which would indicate that a student should receive ESY. In considering data for ESY services, the IEP team should consider examining data in the following thirteen (13) areas: nature of the disability, degree of impairment, child s rate of progress, degree of skill regression in the past, exact time of skill regression, child's rate of skill recoupment,

area of the child s curriculum that needs continuous attention (emerging critical skill or past skill gains significantly jeopardized) cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and physical factors, ability of the parents to provide structure in the home, availability of alternative resources, ability of the child to interact with non-disabled peers, need for related or vocational services and whether requested services are extraordinary for the child's condition, as opposed to an integral part of a program for students with the same disabling condition. It is not appropriate to assume that a student with a severe disability needs ESY. Many students with severe disabilities consistently demonstrate a limited array of skills, but they may not demonstrate a significant loss of skills or need an extraordinary amount of time to relearn lost skills. Such students are unlikely candidates for ESY services. ESY services must be considered for each student who receives IEP services. The consideration for ESY services must be made at least annually as a part of the Extended School Year Consideration section of the IEP. During this part of the IEP meeting, the team leader must ask, Does (student) demonstrate skill loss and require an extraordinary amount of time to relearn lost skills during breaks in the calendar or instruction? If the consensus response from the team members (including the parent) is No, then No is checked on the IEP. ESY services are not needed is checked and Reasons supporting the determination are stated in the space provided. If the team cannot come to consensus on a No response, then additional or existing present levels of educational performance information must be gathered, reviewed and examined. If the such information is not available at the time of the meeting, To be Determined is selected and Reasons supporting the determination are stated and a plan to gather the necessary information, including a proposed date to reconvene must be recorded. When there is sufficient information to make a determination, it should be reported in the pertinent skill areas in the Present Levels of Educational Performance and/or the Extended School Year Recommendation sections of the IEP in the section labeled Educational performance information provided by parent or student. The data must be discussed, recorded and support both the need for ESY, what service is needed as ESY and the amount of ESY service needed. In the Performance Information Analysis section of the meeting, the performance data must be discussed with respect to the 13 factors listed above. If the data analysis supports the need for services, then the ESY Services are needed box must be checked. If the data analysis does not support the need for services then the ESY Services are not needed box must be checked. In either case, the team must state the reasons supporting the determination in the section labeled Reasons for supporting the determination. The reasons given should address the applicable 13 factors listed above. When the team determines that ESY Services are needed, goals and objectives specific to the ESY period must be identified in the Goals and Objectives section of the IEP, The amount of special education and/or related services (including transportation) to be provided must be recorded in the Services section of the IEP.

The special education identified for ESY must include the start date, end date, amount of service minutes per week and the service location. Start and end dates for ESY services during summer and intersession breaks are determined administratively, based on the official school calendar. In all cases, one of the three ESY choices (not needed, needed, to be determined) must be selected, which ever applies to a particular student and the available data. The following information provides additional guidance concerning the determination of the need for ESY services. Step 1 - Preparation for Consideration of ESY Services A. Collect Regression/Recoupement Educational Performance Information: Prior to an IEP meeting in consideration of ESY services, the IEP team must complete a number of tasks for all students, regardless of whether ESY may or may not appear warranted. Document the mastery of objectives several times during the school year. Quantitative and qualitative data provide concrete information that will support an ESY recommendation. Other types of measurements are also acceptable. While teacher observation and parent information are not ruled out as evidence of need, its value will be strengthened if tied to quantifiable data. If mastery has not been attained, document the level of achievement, and periodically record the results prior to an IEP review. Record levels of performance immediately prior to a break in the calendar. Document the progress the child makes immediately following a break in the school calendar. Document the amount of time necessary to regain skills lost during the calendar break. Document any illness that resulted in significant absences, periods of little academic achievement, lack of instruction or regression. Document any denial of a free appropriate public education or failure to implement the IEP, i.e. failure to provide a related service. If so, compensatory education in the form of ESY could be a factor. At the time of the meeting, the IEP team must consider and record a summary of pertinent performance information as a part the Present Levels of Educational Performance section of the IEP. B. Invitation to Conference: The need for ESY services may be considered at any meeting called to discuss the IEP. However, for those students where a need for ESY services may occur, a discussion of ESY services is typically included at the annual review of the student's IEP or in a special meeting devoted to ESY. It is important to schedule reviews early enough to allow for planning on the part of the parent, the Central Review Committee representative and, if necessary, the personnel providing the education and related services. When a meeting is convened solely for the purpose of considering ESY, the Invitation to Conference must indicate that purpose. When the meeting purpose is an initial IEP or an annual IEP review, consideration of ESY does not need to be stated as a meeting purpose. The meeting can be a separate

meeting or combined with an initial or annual review. Refer to the Invitation to Conference section of this document and the Required Minimum Participants in a Meeting chart for further guidance on completing the Invitation to Conference. Step 2 - Performance Information Analysis The ESY meeting should be guided by the IEP document. The name and representation of the participants in the ESY meeting must be recorded in the IEP Participants section of the IEP. An IEP team should then consider a review of the following in determining the need for ESY: Consideration of regression/recoupment data in relationship to the regression/recoupment factors and to the reasonable recoupment period standard. Documented evidence showing that substantial skill loss caused by interruption in educational services or instruction, together with the student's limited capacity to re-learn lost skills may result in a significant delay in re-learning critical skills. Current IEP, especially the present levels of educational performance, annual goals, and short term instructional objectives. Progress monitoring data and IEP progress reports. Activity on the part of educators and/or parents which specifically addressed the maintenance of learned skills while programming was interrupted. Consideration of pertinent medical, psychological and educational data. Areas of learning which are identified as an integral part of a skill area required to reach the student's assessed potential, such as social, motoric, behavioral, academic, self-help, and communicative abilities. There are questions to be asked which may alert the IEP team to the possible need for ESY services. Each question must be reviewed within the context of the significant regression/recruitment factors and supported by the data. A significant number of positive responses to these questions may suggest the need for ESY services and would require further analysis of regression and recoupement information: Is a significant amount of time and effort required to assist the student in regaining previously learned behavior and skills? Does the student experience significant regression in adaptive behavior or learned skills over regularly scheduled school breaks during the year (i.e., holidays, weekends)? If the student has received special education services in the previous year, has there been a record of regression and limited recoupment following calendar breaks? Have previous ESY services for this student resulted in positive rather than negative benefits for the student? Would the benefits to be derived from ESY services outweigh the positive benefits of a summer vacation? Have other program options which would meet the needs of the student been considered and determined to be of less benefit than extended school year services?

Is the child not ready to attack the short-term objectives in the IEP after a calendar break? Is there an extraordinary number of readiness activities prior to beginning a new objective? Does it take an extraordinary length of time to begin new objectives? Is the child developing those critical skills that, if not taught now, will never be adequately learned and/or developed? These skills are a priority for development and age-appropriate growth. Is this a child with a degenerative sensory impairment, i.e., speech or hearing, whose prognosis is the loss of the sense, and therefore requires an IEP goal which will allow the development of the skill as much as possible? Does past calendar break skill loss data indicate recoupment time greater than a reasonable recoupment period? Are there critical self-sufficiency issues relating to independence from caretaker? Are there critical skill areas such as academic, self-help, communicative, motoric, behavioral and social which must be maintained? Is there a specific related or vocational service needed to prevent loss of skills that may not be regained in a reasonable amount of time? Will social skill gains be lost and not recouped in a reasonable amount of time without opportunities to interact with non-disabled peers? The IEP team must review, discuss, summarize and record the performance information relevant to the significant regression/recoupment factors during the present levels of education performance portion of the IEP meeting. Any information provided by the parent which is relevant to the significant regression/recoupment factors should be recorded in the Extended School Year Recommendation section of the IEP in the area labeled Educational performance information provided by parent or student. The IEP team should collectively consider all of the educational performance information and record its analysis of this information in the Extended School Year Recommendation section of the IEP in the section labeled Performance Information Analysis. The performance information analysis must directly relate the performance data to the significant regression/recoupment factors. Step 3 - Determination of Need for ESY Services Based on the performance information analysis, the IEP team must come to a consensus on whether ESY services are needed or not needed. The appropriate box should be marked in the Extended School Year Recommendation section of the IEP stating whether ESY is needed or not. Once this determination is made, one or more reasons for supporting the recommendations must be stated. Rationale supporting the determination must be recorded in the Extended School Year Recommendation section of the IEP in the area labeled Reasons supporting the determination. Rationale information must be derived from the performance information analysis and clearly address the significant regression/recoupment factors. The reasons supporting the determination must be evident from the performance information and analysis. (If the IEP team determines no need for ESY services, then Step 4 should be omitted and Step 5 completed.)

Step 4 - Identification of ESY Services A. Goals and Objectives: Based on the performance information analysis and the determination of need rationale, ESY goal(s) and objectives must be developed. The goals and objectives should be targeted at skills and behaviors contributing to the identified significant regression/recoupment factors. The outcomes should be to reduce skill loss in a critical skill area(s) and positively impact skill recoupment to within a reasonable amount of time. There must be a direct relationship between the goals and objectives and performance information and service rationale. Goals and objectives for ESY services must be recorded in the Goals and Objectives section of the IEP. For more guidance on goals and objectives, refer to the Individualized Education Program section of this Manual. B. Service Schedule: The IEP team must provide specific ESY service information on the Services section of the IEP. The service schedule includes the type of special education and/or related service, starting date, ending date and the amount of time committed to each service. There must be a direct relationship between the goals and objectives and the proposed services. Start and end dates for ESY services during summer and intersession breaks are determined administratively, based on the official school calendar. Record Service Schedule information in the Services section of the IEP. For more guidance on the Service Schedule, refer to the Individualized Education Program section of this Manual. Step 5 - Procedural Safeguards Prior Notice of Proposal: Parents of students with disabilities must be provided prior written notice of a proposal or refusal of ESY services. The proposal or refusal must be stated, the reason supporting the proposal or refusal, options considered and rejected, reasons why these options were rejected, data used to support the proposal or refusal and a procedural safeguards advisement. Completing the Procedural Safeguards section of the IEP and providing a copy of the IEP to the parent meets this requirement. If the parents disagree with the proposal or refusal or the IEP team cannot reach consensus on ESY services, the IEP team should reconvene to consider any additional information which may alter the proposal or refusal. If the parents continue to disagree or the IEP team cannot reach consensus on ESY services, the IEP team may request Liaison assistance or the parents may exercise any of the conflict resolution procedural safeguards identified in the NHCS Parent s Rights Handbook. Timelines/Process Tips: The Services section of the IEP which specifies ESY must be submitted to the Special Education and Related Services office six weeks prior to the end of the calendar break period to ensure timely assignment of personnel. IEP meetings at which ESY services will be considered should be scheduled a week or more before the 6-week submission date. Since a Liaison representative must be included, adequate notice and consecutive scheduling at school sites is critical.