Determining the need for Extended School Year (ESY) services is a crucial task for every Individualized Education Program (IEP) Team in Michigan. At each IEP meeting, the team must consider whether ESY services are necessary for students with disabilities to maintain their skills.
The IEP Team is composed of a diverse group of individuals, including the student's parents, the student (when appropriate), general education teachers, special education and related service providers, an administrator or school representative, and individuals who can interpret the instructional implications of evaluation results. Each member contributes valuable insights about the student's unique needs, academic, social, and behavioral progress.
Data plays a pivotal role in determining the need for ESY services. The IEP Team reviews data for each goal area to decide if ESY services are required to maintain skills in one or more annual goal areas of concern. This data is gathered throughout the year, especially before and after breaks in service, enabling the team to make informed, individualized decisions.
If the need for ESY services or their specifics are not clear during the annual IEP meeting, the team must reconvene to make this determination and provide notice of their decision. They may also plan what data should be gathered to assist in future determinations. Any changes should be documented and attached to the current IEP.
ESY services must be provided if the IEP Team determines that maintaining skills in one or more goal areas is necessary for the student to receive a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). It's important to note that if a student has five annual goals in different skill areas and data supports the need for ESY in one or two areas, then ESY services would only be provided for those specific areas.
The IEP Team must consider if there are current annual goals addressing skills that need to be maintained without interruption for the student to receive a FAPE. A student may need ESY services due to:
- A serious potential for regression of skills beyond a reasonable period of recoupment
- The nature or severity of the disability
- Critical stages of learning or areas of learning
If no goal areas of concern are identified, ESY services are not required for a FAPE. If one or more goal areas of concern are identified, the IEP Team must answer the following questions:
Question #1: Does data in the identified goal area(s) of concern indicate a serious potential for regression of skills beyond a reasonable period of recoupment?
Regression refers to the student's inability to maintain an acquired skill in a goal area when special education instruction or related services are interrupted, requiring an unreasonable amount of time for recoupment. Recoupment is the student's capacity to recover regressed skills to a level demonstrated before the break in instruction.
The IEP Team must consider:
- There must be a serious potential for regression of skills related to the goal area(s) of concern
- The potential period of recoupment must be beyond a reasonable amount of time
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