Apr 2, 2008
Summer is rapidly approaching. For most children summer means time off from school. But for some students with disabilities, interrupting their school program during the summer break, jeopardizes the benefit they receive from that program during the regular school year. These students need services during the summer to receive a free appropriate public education. Services provided in the summer are called extended school year services or ESY services. Extended school year services are special education and related services that are provided to a child with a disability beyond the normal school year of the school district.
The first court cases requiring ESY services involved students with disabilities who, during the summer, lost skills they had learned during the previous school year. As a result of this loss of skills during the summer, the students were unable to benefit from their school program. These cases established a regression/recoupment standard for establishing the need for ESY. The student lost skills during the summer, or regressed, so significantly that the student could not reasonably make up, or recoup, that loss the following school year.
The courts noted that all students regress some during extended absences from school. Most students can make up that loss, in a reasonable amount of time, when they return to school. If it takes a student with a disability significantly longer to make up the loss, that student may be entitled to extended school year services. Thus, students who regressed that significantly were entitled to services during the summer as part of receiving a free appropriate education.
Later court decisions allowed students to receive ESY services without first being out of school during the summer months. If the IEP team could predict that the student was likely to regress, ESY services could be included on the IEP. Planning teams could look at how the student performed after being out of school during holidays or illnesses. Based on how the student performed upon returning to school, the IEP team could predict whether the student would be eligible for ESY.
More recent court cases include factors, other than just regression/recoupment, in determining ESY eligibility. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Johnson v. Independent School District No. 4, included factors such as:
· the degree of the student’s impairment and the ability of the student’s parents to provide educational structure at home,
· the student’s rate of progress, the student’s behavioral and physical problems,
· the availability of alternative resources,
· the ability of the student to interact with students without disabilities,
· the areas of the student’s curriculum which need continuous attention,
· the student’s vocational needs.
The Court in Johnson also looked at whether the service being requested for extended school year was extraordinary to this particular student or was an integral part of a program for students with this disability. If the service was an integral part of the program for students with this disability, it could be required to be provided during the summer.
Under the IDEA 2004 extended school year services must be provided only if a student’s IEP team determines, on an individual basis, that extended school year services are needed for the student to receive an appropriate education. The school district may not: (1) limit extended school year services to students with particular categories of disability; or (2) unilaterally limit the type, amount, or duration of the extended school year services. Additionally, since extended school year services are part of providing a free appropriate public education, the services must be provided according to an IEP and at no cost to the student’s parents.
Extended school year services are not intended to continue the progress the student made during the normal school year through the summer. Rather, extended school year services are required to prevent jeopardizing progress the student has already made during the normal school year. Parents who believe their child may need ESY services should make sure this topic is discussed at the IEP meeting. If the student has not already been out of school for a summer, parents should make sure the student's teachers are tracking the student's performance after school holidays and absences. This information will be needed to predict future regression.
