Revisiting Extended School Year (ESY) Services

As schools hold end-of-year case conference committee (CCC) meetings, be sure to understand extended school year (ESY) services. Your child might be eligible.

Often, schools only consider whether a student suffers significant skill loss (regression) during school breaks and takes an unreasonable amount of time to regain those skills (recoupment). But other factors should be considered.

ESY Factors:

The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) says these additional factors should be considered when evaluating a student’s need for ESY:

• Critical learning needs of the individual student
• Degree of progress on IEP goals affected by interruption
• Least restrictive environment (LRE) and how interruption may impact the student’s continued access to their LRE
• Loss of independence from caretakers
• Emergent needs/breakthrough learning opportunities affected by interruption
• Regression/recoupment of critical life skills as a result of interruption
• Impact of interfering behavior impact on educational programming/progress
• The nature and/or severity of the disability
• Other special circumstances impacting the specific student

A student’s case conference committee (CCC) must decide if ESY services are necessary. In fact, a student’s IEP must specifically state the CCC’s decision about ESY services.

Has ESY been discussed at your child’s CCC meeting? And does your child’s IEP include an accurate description about that discussion? If not and you feel your child needs ESY, you may call a CCC meeting.

We previously wrote about ESY services in a blog article several years ago. However, a few months ago, the IDOE issued a helpful Spread the Word: Extended School Year Services document explaining ESY. It includes a link to IDOE’s more comprehensive guide called Technical Assistance Document: Determining the Need for Extended School Year Services April 2022.

Additional Help: If you have concerns or questions about ESY or other issues related to special education, complete an application for our services.

The statements contained herein are provided for informational purposes, and are not to be considered legal advice