Extended School Year (ESY)San Diego Unified School District

Special Education Division2014 - 2015

Federal/State Definition of ESYExtended school year (ESY) services are services

provided beyond the regular school year that are required for a student to make educational progress during the school year.

Services must be individually designed to meet specific objectives included in a student's individualized education program (IEP) and are part of what constitutes a FAPE for the student who receives them.

ESY services are not simply an extension of time in school, an automatic summer school placement, or a summer enrichment program.

Federal/State Definition of ESYTitle 5 of the California Code of Regs, section 3043 states: • Extended school year services shall be provided for each individual with

exceptional needs who has unique needs and requires special education and related services in excess of the regular academic year.

• Such individuals shall have handicaps which are likely to continue indefinitely or for a prolonged period, and interruption of the pupil's educational programming may cause regression, when coupled with limited recoupment capacity, rendering it impossible or unlikely that the pupil will attain the level of self-sufficiency and independence that would otherwise be expected in view of his or her handicapping condition.

• The lack of clear evidence of such factors may not be used to deny an individual an extended school year program if the individualized education program team determines the need for such a program and includes extended school year in the individualized education program pursuant to subsection (f).

SUMMER SCHOOL OR ESY?Summer School is a General Education

opportunity to support any student at risk of retention and for credit recovery for high school; determined by district policy.The purpose is to remediate academic skills.

ESY is a Special Education service designed to extend the school year for a student with a disability based on specific criteria; determined by the IEP team. There is no academic “credit” given to ESY students.The purpose is to address critical life skills.The purpose is to maintain existing skills.

Factors to Consider Before Checking YES to ESY

Regression and the data to supportRecoupment and the data to supportCritical stage of skill development Special Circumstances

Methodology as a year-round treatment such as Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)

Severity and nature of disability Interfering behaviors

Progress Report on IEP Goals and supporting dataGeneral Education report cards/progress reportsParent and Staff input

Data to ConsiderIEP goal data and progress reportsClassroom based assessment methods,

benchmarks level tests, chapter testsRunning records or therapy notesCriterion referenced testsAnecdotal data collectionBehavior plan implementation and dataSystematic observations in various settingsStandardized testsStatewide assessments

Regression

Whether the student reverts to a lower level of functioning as evidenced by a measurable decrease in skills or behaviors which occurs as a result of interruption in educational programming. Regression must be evidenced by current data.

Is there documentation that without ESY services, the child is likely to lose critical life skills?

RecoupmentWhether the student has the capacity to recover the skills or behavior patterns in which regression occurred to a level demonstrated prior to the interruption of educational programming within a reasonable period of time. Recoupment must be evidenced by current data.

Is there documentation that without ESY services, the child is likely to fail to recover critical life skills within a reasonable period of time?

Reasonable recoupment time periods

20-30 instructional days for a six-eight week break

5-7 instructional days for a three week break3-5 instructional days for a two week break2-3 instructional days for a one week break

(Source: Portland Public Schools, Dept of Special Education, Sept, 2003)

Critical stage of skill development

The extent to which the student has mastered and consolidated an important skill or behavior at the point when educational programming would be interrupted as evidenced by current data.

Without ESY services, will a lengthy school break cause significant problems for the student in generalizing a critical skill in the subsequent school year?

Special CircumstancesMethodology- student requires consistent year-round

treatment such as Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to maintain educational benefit.

Severity of disability- whether the student’s disability is severe, such as autism/PDD, serious emotional disturbance, severe mental retardation, degenerative impairments with mental involvement and severe multiple disabilities.

Without ESY services, are there any special circumstances that significantly impact the student’s ability to benefit from his educational program during the subsequent school year?

Special Circumstances continued

Interfering Behaviors –The extent to which successive interruptions in educational programming result in a student’s withdrawal from the learning process as evidenced by current data.

Without ESY services, will the interruption of programming which addresses interfering behaviors targeted by IEP objectives be likely to prevent the student from receiving educational benefit during the subsequent school year?

Summary of Decision Points Is there documentation that without ESY services, the child is likely to lose

critical life skills?

Is there documentation that without ESY services, the child is likely to fail to recover critical life skills within a reasonable period of time?

Without ESY services, will a lengthy school break cause significant problems for the student in generalizing a critical skill in the subsequent school year?

Without ESY services, are there any special circumstances that significantly impact the student’s ability to benefit from his educational program during the subsequent school year?

Without ESY services, will the interruption of programming which addresses interfering behaviors targeted by IEP objectives be likely to prevent the student from receiving educational benefit during the subsequent school year?

Documenting ESY on an IEP

If the IEP Team makes a recommendation for ESY services, the team:

Identifies the critical IEP goals to be addressed during ESY and how they will be measured.

Determines related services needed and the level of each service that is required to address goals during ESY.

Transportation• Special Education Transportation is an IEP team designated

Related Service.• Transportation as a Related Service is available only to

students who:a. require transportation due to the severity of their disability;

OR b. who require transportation to access services not available at

their school of residence.

• Students assigned to a site for ESY other than their SOR, will automatically be transported.

Related Service Recommendations

• Related Service support should be considered only if they are Necessary and Required for the student to make progress on IEP goals or during ESY.

Necessary and Required

1. Is the Proposed Related Service Educationally Relevant? • Educational relevance exists when a proposed service can be

explicitly linked with a component of the student’s educational program.

Necessary and Required

2. What is the Purpose of the Proposed Related Service? • The team should clearly understand purpose of Proposed

Related Service. A clear purpose promotes effective implementation and evaluation.

• Sometimes the purpose of providing a related service is to: • Select and monitor the use of equipment • Make adaptations • Apply skills specific to the professional discipline

Necessary and Required

3. Is the Proposed Related Service Educationally Necessary? The services may be educationally necessary if:• The absence of the service interfere with the student’s access

to or participation in his or her educational program this year.• If the related service is not provided, then the student would

not be able to learn or take part in his/her School Day”• The service must also be educationally necessary.

Related Service Recommendations

• All IEP team members support student goals and areas of need.• There are no “Areas of Need” that belong to a specific

related service.• In some situations, the student may require related

services to support goals during the school year, but may not be Necessary and Required during ESY• Ex. The goal area would be practiced as a part of the student’s

educational routine, but many not require additional support/strategies from a Related Service Provider.

Next steps• Case manager follows the steps listed in the ESY Procedures

Memo to ensure the student’s successful transition