Extended School Year (ESY)

Extended School Year (ESY) is an individualized instructional program that is provided for eligible students with disabilities beyond the regular school year.  The need for ESY services must be determined on an individual basis by the admission, review, and dismissal (ARD) committee.  The ARD committee will address ESY on an annual basis.  Extended School Year service may not be limited to particular categories of disability or be limited by the type, amount, or duration of those services required for the individual child and will be provided at no cost to the parents of the child.  The ARD committee will determine the length and duration of ESY services needed to maintain critical skills.

The need for ESY services must be documented from formal and/or informal evaluations provided by the district or the parents.  The documentation shall demonstrate that in one or more critical areas addressed in the current individualized education program (IEP) objectives, the student has exhibited, or reasonably may be expected to exhibit, severe or substantial regression that cannot be recouped within a reasonable period of time.  Severe or substantial regression means that the student has been, or will be unable to maintain one or more acquired critical skills in the absence of ESY services.  The period for recoupment shall not exceed eight weeks.  If the loss results, or reasonably may be expected to result, in immediate physical harm to the student or to others, ESY services may be justified without consideration of the period of time for recoupment of such skills.   

A skill is critical when the loss of that skill results, or is reasonably expected to result, in any of the following occurrences during the first eight weeks of the next regular school year:

(A) placement in a more restrictive instructional arrangement;

(B) significant loss of acquired skills necessary for the student to appropriately progress in the general curriculum; 

(C) significant loss of self-sufficiency in self-help areas as evidenced by an increase in the number of direct service staff and/or amount of time required to provide special education or related services; 

(D) loss of access to community-based independent living skills instruction or an independent living environment provided by non-educational sources as a result of regression in skills; or

(E) loss of access to on-the-job training or productive employment as a result of regression in skills.

For students enrolling in the district during the school year (including those who turn three in the summer), information obtained from the prior school district as well as information collected during the current year may be used to determine the need for ESY services.

The provision of ESY services is limited to the educational needs of the student and shall not supplant or limit the responsibility of other public agencies to continue to provide care and treatment services pursuant to policy or practice, even when those services are similar to, or the same as, the services addressed in the student's IEP.  No student shall be denied ESY services because the student receives care and treatment services under the auspices of other agencies.