My daughter has a learning disability in math. She has an IEP that addresses this. She failed math this last school year so she went to summer school and I was told she was failing math there. I mentioned to the teacher that she has an IEP and was told that they did not have to address the IEP during the summer because they have a skeleton crew and don’t have adequate staff. Can you please let me know if this is legal? They have failed her in school because they would not provide her help.
Dear Stephanie:
First, if a child is not making adequate progress and loses progress during breaks, he/she is entitled to receive extended school year services over the summer to address the disability. These services should be spelled out in the IEP and should be sufficient to allow the child to make progress.
Even if your daughter was in regular math class, if she has an IEP due to her math disability, it would be likely that she would be entitled to accommodations and other assistance to help her with the math in the regular summer school program.
Further, given that she has an IEP, you should question the adequacy of her math instruction during the regular school year, as the IEP should be designed so that she will make progress. If she is failing, that is an IEP issue, and the IEP team should determine why she is failing and what is needed in order to allow her to make adequate progress.