Understanding the Eligibility of ESY

If your child’s annual IEP is in the springtime, chances are good that someone at your meeting will say something like, “Well, while we have you here, let’s take care of ESY.” You might be thinking, “What is that??? More letters that I’m not really sure about.” Since you get that sinking feeling that you’re supposed to know what those 3 letters mean, you just let it go and the person at the end of the table goes tap-tap-tap on their laptop and then moves on to something else, and you’re not even sure what just happened.

ESY Stands for Extended School Year
These are, generally speaking, the 4-6 weeks of summer educational programming provided by the public school system. There are multiple questions on the ESY page of your IEP that are used to determine ESY eligibility (read them before the meeting), although schools like to go straight to the one that asks if the student is likely to regress without ESY. You only have to have a “yes” response to one of them in order for your child to be eligible. The one that I find as the biggest reason to give a student ESY is the one that asks if there are “emerging critical life skills.” Do you know a child who doesn’t have emerging critical life skills? I don’t. Reading is a CLS. Communicating is a CLS. Social skills include CLSs. etc

Instead of me rambling on about this, I figured I would put below the explanation that a group of attorneys at Disability Rights Florida came up with, so that you know that it’s valid, AND that you use it when attending these meetings at your school. We, as parents, always need to know just a little bit more than those who are trying to influence us one way or another when it comes to our kids. Remember, YOU are your child’s best advocate – you just need to make sure you have the correct information to make the best decisions possible.

Factors for Consideration by Disability Rights Florida

• Whether there is a likelihood that significant regression will occur in critical life skills related to: academics, communication, independent functioning and self-sufficiency; and, social or emotional development or behavior.
• Whether the student is at a crucial stage in the development of a critical life skill or an emerging skill and a lapse in services would substantially jeopardize the student’s chances of learning that skill;
• Whether the nature or severity of the student’s disability is such that the student would be unlikely to benefit from their education without the provision of ESY services; and,
• Extenuating circumstances pertinent to the student’s current situation that indicate the likelihood that FAPE would not be provided without ESY services.
• Factors outlined by FLDOE:
  • Regression/recoupment
  • Critical point of instruction
  • Emerging Skills
  • Nature of severity of disability
  • Interfering behaviors
  • Rate of progress
  • Special circumstances (e.g., transition from school to work)

Strategies

• ESY services may not be limited to particular categories of disability.
• Services may not be unilaterally limited in type, amount, or duration
• ESY could take place during any school break, or even during the school term in addition to the regular school day, depending on what the individual student needs to receive their Free Appropriate, Public Education. 

As Per the DOE (back to me)

The following is recommended by the Florida Department of Education as tools to determine if a student qualifies for ESY:

Appropriate data to be reviewed includes, but is not limited to, the following:

• Pattern of regression after past breaks in service
• Pre-/post-tests before/after breaks
• Progress on annual goals
• Point sheets
• Report cards
• Teacher-made checklists
• Work samples
• Therapy logs
• Parent Input
• Probes/running records
• Frequency charts
• Referrals/discipline file
• Other documentation related to extenuating circumstances

Know What You’re Asking For
The one thing that you need to know, or remember, is that because most parents don’t understand their rights, most kids who go to ESY are students with significant needs. So, especially if you have a child who is at or near grade level, can communicate fairly successfully, independently completes tasks, etc, ESY will probably not include the role models you might be hoping for. But, if more parents ensure that their child receive the benefits of ESY, then the dynamics will change and more appropriate environments will open up.

– Talk to your school about ESY
– If they say, “No”, then ask, “Why not?”
– If you feel that your child needs summer instruction to help them further their reading skills, let the school know that one of your child’s emerging critical life skills is reading (and be sure that you have a goal for it)
– There must be goals that will be recognized as goals for ESY

Hoping this gives you some of the tools you need as the ESY discussion is had at  your IEP meetings.

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Good luck advocating!

Stacey