How does my child qualify for ESY?
Typically, students who are eligible for ESY are those who have regressed during a regularly scheduled break (like winter or spring breaks, or over the summer) and have a demonstrated history of difficulty recouping previously learned skills or behavior.
- ESY is not guaranteed for all students who have IEPs (and, not all students with IEPs need it.)
What does an IEP team consider to figure out if ESY services are needed?
- If your child is eligible, their IEP team may talk about getting them ESY services. The main issues the team looks at are regression (losing skills) and recoupment (the time needed to relearn skills). The questions the team considers are:
- Will your child lose critical skills without continued support and teaching? What data supports this critical loss?
- Will it take a long time for them to regain those skills—longer than it would take a child without a learning difference? What data supports significantly extended time to regain those skills?
If your child has a history of regressing and struggling to relearn, the ARD committee will take that into account. If there’s no data, it can be harder to make a decision. But there are some questions the team may ask to help predict how likely they are to regress. These include:
- Has your child had difficulty retaining skills over shorter breaks? What skills?
- Does your child have known issues with demonstrating key skills when school is back in session ?
- Does your child need continual reinforcement to keep their skills during the regular school year?
- Does your child have behavior issues that get in the way of learning during the school year? Will that be a problem next year without continued support over the summer?
- Is your child making steady progress toward meeting their IEP goals? And will a break in services threaten that progress?
Parents are critical members of the IEP committee. Please be prepared to share your observations and data collected on your child.