ESY (Extended School Year)
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ESY is special education and related services provided beyond the regular school year, at no cost, when the IEP team decides a student needs them for FAPE.
Topic: The IEP document
In plain terms
ESY is not summer school, and it is not offered to every student with an IEP. The team decides each year, for each student, based on the student's needs. Many states use factors such as significant regression over breaks and slow recoupment afterward, emerging skills at a critical point, or the nature of the disability. ESY usually targets a few key goals, not the whole IEP.
How it shows up in an IEP
Data before and after long breaks is often the deciding evidence. Teachers who probe the same skill just before winter break and again two weeks after have a clear picture of regression and recoupment.
Example
A student's sight word accuracy drops from 85% to 50% after winter break and takes six weeks to recover. The team approves four weeks of ESY focused on that goal.
The rule
Federal reference: 34 CFR §300.106.
Rules vary by state. Check your state's regulations and your district's procedures.
Related terms
- FAPE (Free Appropriate Public Education)FAPE is the right of every eligible child with a disability to special education and related services, at no cost, designed around the child's needs.
- Annual goalAn annual goal is a statement in the IEP of what the student is expected to achieve within one year in an area of need.
- Progress monitoringProgress monitoring is the regular, repeated measurement of a student's performance on a skill to check whether instruction is working.
- Service minutesService minutes are the amount of time, written in the IEP, that a student will receive each special education or related service.
- BaselineA baseline is a student's measured performance on a skill before instruction toward a new goal begins, used as the goal's starting point.
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