ESY - Extended School Year

At some point during your child's IEP the question, does the child need ESY Services, must be discussed and decided as a team.  Just some helpful tips in advocating for ESY.

First, ESY is not Summer school, it is Extended School Year and is intended to continue to give your child a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) if your child shows a need for this service. ESY is not a continuation of the school year. Certain goals will be worked on or skills that need more than just the school year to maintain or develop. Once you decide as a team that your child is eligible of ESY you can can also decide what goals specifically your child will need to work on during that extended time.  

ESY is not an Enrichment Program nor should it be used for Compensatory Services. ESY is not provided to students that are not on an IEP. 

There is not set guidelines to ESY Services but we do know it's NOT based off the severity of the disability or a disability category. So, saying "he/she isn't severe enough or he/she doesn't have Autism and can't have ESY services because of _____" isn't correct - although far too often I hear these "ESY policies or rules" being said to parents. Another comment I hear often is "your child's not in self contained". 

Data supports decisions and data drives services - there should be some data collected before making the team decision for ESY Services. What kind of data? Below are a few questions that you and the team can go through and discuss - these are just a few ideas to get you started advocating if you want ESY services and these can help get the conversation going and team members thinking. 

• How is your child after a long weekend/school break? 
• Does your child need more time to get back in the swing of things? 
• Does your child lose information during those breaks and need to be retaught or constant reminders? Does the schedule change upset your child and does he/she have a hard time because of it (behaviorally, emotionally)? 
• Are these goals in your child's IEP that need extra practicing? 
• Are there skills your child is learning that are just emerging that would benefit that extended time to help them master those skills or maintain them?

Think about your child and what you feel your child could be doing during that extended time. Write your thoughts down and come up with questions individualized to your child needs. If you ever question anything - ask for it in writing and go research it! Sometimes the team will want time to collect data and see if there is a need for ESY. Set a timeline, an estimated date when you'll all meet back up again, and put that plan in writing, 

If the team agrees ESY is a need and it doesn't work for your family - vacations, family times, or maybe the change could be more detrimental than the benefit of ESY. A lot of times the classroom is changed, a new teacher, new aides, and even a different school, bus, bus driver ... you can still make YES on the IEP just in case you change your mind then just simply call the ESY department towards the end of the year and let them know. I've had parents tell me they are braking the law by not sending their children or that the school has told them they will go to jail for truancy, ESY is not mandatory. It's a service in place to maintain FAPE for children that need it. You do not HAVE TO send your child. 

SMART Goals

Do you ever wonder what a good goal is? I'm sure you've searched the "goal bank" looking for goals that might be good for your child, but here's just a little tip on writing goals that are unique, individualized, and specific to your child's needs.

First, look at your child's present levels. Where are his/her struggles? Identify them (I use a highlighter)

Then follow this:
S Specific
M Measurable
A Achievable/Attainable  
R Realistic and relevant
T Time-limited (1 year)

Specific - you want your child's goal to be specific! You don't want "William will increase his language by the end of second semester" 

Well, that's not very specific, is it? We don't know by how much, in what settings or if this is expressive language, written language, functional, fluency, social, receptive etc..  

A better goal based on Williams assessments/present levels would be - "William will name items from an array of 25 symbols when given verbal clues describing appearance, function, or other features, in 8 of 10 opportunities supported by General Education, Speech Therapist, and Special Education Teachers"

Measurable - That would be the 8 out of 10 opportunities. If you feel that may be too high you and the team can talk about what might be more attainable. It could even look like 80% , 75%, 7 out of 10, 90% - how ever it's written there it should be measurable. This is also important for collecting data and how close William is to reaching this goal.

Achievable/ Attainable - You know your child best! Look closely at his/her annual goals. Look at the benchmarks (I call them baby steps) in how they are going to reach that annual goal. Is this something you can see your child doing from where she/he is at now? Talk with the team, go over your concerns, ask them to explain how they plan to reach that goal (what does that look like?) and if the team needs to  - rewrite that goal to something more attainable. If he/she reaches the goal sooner, you can always meet again and create a new goal.

Realistic/Relevant - This is important because this is the part of the goal that because the unique and individualized piece. Make sure this is a goal that is relevant to YOUR child and unique to YOUR child's needs.

Time Limited - 1 year. We want all goal reached by the next annual IEP meeting. There is an issue when we have to write the same goal over and over. If your child isn't reaching his/her goals we need to discuss as a team what we can do differently to help meet the needs of the child.

Well, that's a start on creating unique and individualized goals for your child!


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