We had our parent support group meeting on Wednesday. Our guest speaker was our district’s SPED director. She was there to talk about ESY (Extended School Year) and summer school. Well, excuse after excuse, year after year. Anyway, the thing I could not get past was her comment that stopped me cold, but no other parent batted an eye at it. She said that the EXPECTATIONS FOR DISABLED CHILDREN ARE NOT THE SAME AS THE AVERAGE CHILD. So trying to help disabled children progress (or attempt to catch up) during the summer is educational enrichment and does not qualify for ESY.
I nearly fell off my chair. My LD child is in a general ed class, being graded on the same scale as the other children, etc but our expectations for him should not be as high as for the other children? She also commented that it is reasonable that we cannot possibly service all children who need help. I believe this comment was specific to ESY, but she said that of course the most needy cases would be priority. Well, my child happens to be moderately disabled (LD), so year after year he does not qualify because we have needier cases. By needier she is talking about our mostly physically disabled kids. Our IEP is this coming Tuesday. My intial reaction to these comments is anger. Did I not understand or is her “expectations” thing just plain wrong? I do not feel that it would do my son any good to lower the bar for him, he just needs to learn things a different way, right?
Re: some advice please!
hmm,was this recorded? Her comments are quite discriminatory,and you absolutley should be outraged. This is what IDEA says about ESY.§300.309 Extended school year services.
(a) General.
(1) Each public agency shall ensure that extended school year services are available as necessary to provide FAPE, consistent with paragraph (a)(2) of this section.
(2) Extended school year services must be provided only if a child’s IEP team determines, on an individual basis, in accordance with §§300.340-300.350, that the services are necessary for the provision of FAPE to the child.
(3) In implementing the requirements of this section, a public agency may not—
(i) Limit extended school year services to particular categories of disability; or
(ii) Unilaterally limit the type, amount, or duration of those services.
(b) Definition. As used in this section, the term extended school year services means special education and related services that—
(1) Are provided to a child with a disability—
(i) Beyond the normal school year of the public agency;
(ii) In accordance with the child’s IEP; and
(iii) At no cost to the parents of the child; and
(2) Meet the standards of the SEA.
(Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1412(a)(1))
note in 3(1) they MUST NOT limit to a particular category of disability.
If you could get her statements in writing I am SURE your state department of education would be dismayed at the Director’s attitude regarding expectations of her disabled students.
Your DOE website will have the expectations and MOST freakin states have these statewide assessments to make sure the disabled is held up to the very same expectations as the AVERAGE student. Not only is expectations a big issue with most States,it is a big issue with our president these days. What a dumb move,that was!
Re: some advice please!
My school district now has the standard that the child has to be likely to seriously regress (more than two months) during the summer to qualify for ESY. Now I don’t particularly care–he has qualified under different standards for the past two years and I have declined to send him. I can do more in less time on my own.
Beth
I agree
I know you can do more on your own. That is a true, but sad, statement about our educational system. It is behind in up-to-date materials and in teacher training to use them. The money issue is a big factor.
Re: I agree
I agree of course,but the issue here is statements made that can have serious impact on the whole population of disabled studnets in that particular school district. This person is the DIRECTOR of special ed. Scarey.
Re: I agree
Still, regardless of how it sounded, that IS the way the law is interpreted. The serious regression issue is the standard by which ESY is justified. Otherwise, every special ed. child would qualify for summer services. Would that be nice? Sure. Do you think the American public is willing to pay for it??? I don’t need to answer that for you. (And having just completed our taxes…I do not wish to pay another PENNY. ..especially to a system that is ineffective and behind in methods as someone already pointed out).
Janis
Re: some advice please!
1) Each public agency shall ensure that extended school year services are available as necessary to provide FAPE, consistent with paragraph (a)(2) of this section.
(2) Extended school year services must be provided only if a child’s IEP team determines, on an individual basis, in accordance with §§300.340-300.350, that the services are necessary for the provision of FAPE to the child.
while regression is a reason for ESY it is NOT based on law,but a district’s criteria. It is and will always be an IEP team decision.
Re: some advice please!
you are probably correct that many students would benefit from ESY but the reality of the situation is that it is limited to specific situations and needs - this isn’t just in your situation but in most. However, most school districts offer summer school programs which would be appropriate for your child.
It all boils down to money. They can’t say that, but that is the case. The moderate LD child who struggles but is slowly getting by gets short changed so the more profoundly affected child can get more attention. It isn’t right, but you heard it for yourself, that is how it happens.
Document everytihng you can, and be prepared for a dog-fight to get your child what he needs. Good luck to you…