Navigating Extended School Year Services for Students: The Legally Blind Justice Podcast: Episode 40

Summary

This conversation provides an in-depth overview of Extended School Year (ESY) services, emphasizing their importance for students with disabilities. The discussion covers the definition of ESY, its individualized nature, eligibility criteria, goals, service delivery models, and the curriculum structure. The speakers highlight the benefits of ESY, including preventing regression, maintaining skills, and providing consistency. They also discuss the flexibility of ESY programs and the importance of collaboration and data collection in ensuring effective support for students. Real-life examples of ESY plans are shared to illustrate how these services can be tailored to meet individual needs.

Keywords

Extended School Year, ESY, special education, individualized support, eligibility criteria, goals, service delivery, curriculum, benefits, collaboration

Takeaways

• ESY is essential for maintaining meaningful progress for students with disabilities.
• Individualized support is crucial in the IEP process.
• ESY is mandated by IDEA and must be discussed annually.
• Eligibility for ESY is determined on a case-by-case basis.
• The primary goal of ESY is to prevent regression of skills.
• ESY programs can include various services outlined in a child's IEP.
• Flexibility in ESY programs allows for better adaptation to individual needs.
• Data collection during ESY is vital for tracking progress.
• Collaboration among educators enhances the effectiveness of ESY.
• Real-life examples demonstrate the individualized nature of ESY plans.

Transcript The transcript is AI-generated and may contain transcription errors.

Welcome back to another episode of the Legally Blind Justice Podcast, where we bring clarity to the law—and justice to education. I’m your host, Tim Markley.

Today’s episode tackles a topic that matters deeply to families of students with disabilities—Extended School Year services, or ESY. As school districts tighten budgets and families navigate special education with increasing complexity, understanding what ESY is—and what it is not—has never been more important.

Joining us today are two of K. Altman Law’s most dedicated special education advocates, Crystal Ash and Lindsay Oram. They’ll walk you through the core purpose of ESY, break down the myths, and explain how these federally mandated services can prevent skill regression and help maintain consistency for students during extended breaks.

Whether you’re a parent wondering how to advocate for your child, a teacher trying to understand what your students are entitled to, or a district administrator hoping to ensure compliance with IDEA, this episode is your guide.

Let’s dive in with Crystal and Lindsay as they explain what ESY is, how it’s determined, and why it’s more than just “summer school.”

All right. Hi, everyone. Welcome to our K. Altman Law Extended School Year Services webinar. I'm Crystal Ash. I'm here as one of our special education advocates and I have Lindsay Oram, also a special education advocate here with me tonight. So our webinar is really to just kind of go over what ESY or Extended School Year Services are.

and just kind of talk about the different options that you might have for services outside of the standard school year that can help your student or your child or anyone in your life that needs a little bit extra push outside of the regular school year really just get what they need and help their needs be met. So like I said, I'm Crystal Ash, Lindsay Oram here. We're both special education advocates with K-Alp and Law and our objectives for ⁓ kind of what we're

Going over tonight, our purpose is just to kind of give you a very general overview of what ESY is as a whole. What can be included in ESY programming and the benefits that ESY can provide to a student with a disability. So just a very quick overview of what those three objectives are. What is ESY? We're going to kind of look at an overarching view of what ESY is, what's included, what, you know, extended school year even means, what the timeframe for that is.

 

and generally kind of what you're looking at for ESY in most states and districts. What ESY includes, this will be kind of a typical overview of the kinds of programming that you can see, you know, the where, when, why, how, what most states and most districts can offer for ESY. And then the benefits of ESY, again, kind of those overarching, very general benefits that ESY is meant to provide.

And of course, each of these aspects will be individualized. It'll be different for every state, every district, every school and every child, because these are all different. And the programming that your child receives is individualized and independent. So we're really here to just give you an overview of wh