Extended School Year (ESY)
The need for extended school year services must be addressed at the annual IEP meeting to determine if services are necessary during an instructional break in order to provide FAPE to the student. The determination of the need for an extended school year must be based on the significant loss in skills in the absence of special education programming, not on the basis of not achieving one or more IEP goals or objectives. However, the determination of the need for extended school year must be based on objective data regarding the student’s progress on IEP goals and objectives. Data on student progress over time provides the IEP team with information about the student’s general rate of learning skills and the rate of relearning of skills after a break in programming.

Determination of ESY

Data on student progress is used to determine whether:

1. The student will display a significant regression of a skill or acquired knowledge from the student’s level of performance on an annual IEP goal that requires more than the length of the break to recoup;

2. The services are necessary for the student to attain and maintain self-sufficiency because of the critical nature of the skill addressed by an annual IEP goal, the student’s age and level of development, and the timelines for teaching the skill. Self-sufficiency is a set of functional skills necessary for the student to achieve a reasonable degree of personal independence as typically identified in the IEP goals for a student requiring a functional curriculum. Skill areas of self-sufficiency include:

- basic self-help, including toileting, eating, feeding, dressing;
- muscular control;
- physical mobility;
- impulse control;
- personal hygiene;
- development of stable relationships with peers and adults;
- basic communication;
- functional academic competency including basic reading and writing skills, concepts of time and money, and numerical or temporal relationships.

3. The student’s unique needs make ESY services necessary to ensure the student receives a free, appropriate public education (FAPE). The determination of the student’s level of performance must be derived from the progress reports/measurements reported during the school year.

Sources of Information Required to Determine the Need for ESY

The IEP team must base the determination for ESY services on multiple sources of information including:

- Prior observation of the student’s regression and recoupment over the summer;
- Observation of the student’s tendency to regress over extended breaks in instruction during the school year; and
- Experience with other students with similar instructional needs.


Other Factors to Consider:

The IEP team must also consider the student’s:

- progress and maintenance of skills during the regular school year;
- degree of impairment;
- rate of progress;
- behavioral or physical problems;
- availability of alternative resources;
- ability and need to interact with nondisabled peers;
- vocational needs; and
- areas of curriculum which need continuous attention.

ESY Service:

- ESY is not summer school, although ESY services may be provided during summer school.
- ESY is not an extension of the school year or the IEP. ESY does not mean implementing the student’s entire IEP beyond the school year.
- ESY is not provided to teach new skills but to maintain already learned skills.
- ESY services are provided only for the skill identified as significantly regressing or requiring a significant amount of time to relearn the skill.

 ESY.PDF