As June approaches, many IEP teams are busy trying to wrap up the school year. We asked Dr. Sarah Pelangka, special education advocate and owner of KnowIEPs, and non-attorney education advocate Karen Ford Cull for tips on what parents need to do before school gets out for summer, including ESY, transitions, school-provided devices, comp ed, and more.
You may not be able to completely finish and sign your child’s IEP before the end of the year, but you can sign the parts that should be in place before summer, like extended school year (ESY).
Dr. Pelangka notes that not every student with an IEP qualifies for ESY; it’s something to discuss with your IEP team. However, all students have the option of attending summer school if they meet the criteria.
Traditionally, the main difference between summer school and ESY is that ESY is designed to prevent kids from regressing by allowing them to maintain the skills they learned during the school year, while summer school is designed to catch kids up who missed learning during the year or accelerate them so they can progress faster. (However, a recent court case is challenging the idea of maintaining rather than building skills.)
ESY programs are not typically full day, and any related services are provided for half the service minutes that are listed on the child’s IEP during the regular school year. The ESY program is likely not going to be taught by your child’s regular teacher or therapists; many districts contract with non-public providers for ESY. Many districts host privately funded summer schools that should be accessible to all students with disabilities at no cost to the family.
Here’s what Dr. Pelangka says to parents who may be concerned about ESY placement: “Parents have the option to send their child to ESY. Just because it's offered doesn't mean you have to take advantage of it — it's not required. You can take advantage of portions of it. So let's say they qualify for speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, and their SAI minutes, but you're only wanting the speech and the OT and not the SAI piece. You can take advantage of that. You can have your child attend gen ed summer school and also still have access to their speech and OT.”
ESY or not: keep the momentum going on goals
ESY is designed to keep your child working on their IEP goals, and this might look different for different kids based on their needs. Cull says, “If you are not doing ESY, you can ask your child's teacher and related service providers for a summer packet. If your child is an emerging reader, ask your reading specialist for a list of fun kids books that would be perfect for them to practice with. Maybe they have some writing worksheets to practice. Writing a simple journal is also a great summer activity. You can do this by taking photos and writing one word to go with the photo — it doesn't have to be a memoir!”
The end of the school year is also a good time to lay the groundwork for next year, especially if your child is moving to a new school, such as transitioning from elementary to middle school or middle to high school. Here are Dr. Pelangka’s three tips for working with your IEP team on transitions before school gets out for summer:
Get service minutes in place in the IEP
Dr. Pelangka recommends that IEP teams “at least agree upon the areas in which goals are needed…at least kind of getting a feel for what the recommended minutes would be and trying to get that settled out and hash out the schedule. That's really the biggest piece. Particularly for middle school and high school, you really want to try to have the schedule set because it's hard. If you change one period, it may change the whole day. If it's elementary school, it's a lot more flexible. If you can't agree on goal areas, then that's obviously a bigger issue because that could completely impact services all together. That would then lead to maybe a disagreement in what classes the student should be in, so you can also request to meet over the summer. I know district staff work over the summer, it just may not be a full team, right? So you can try to at least hash it out through an administrative amendment, if need be. Or, of course, just try to hold the IEP meeting as soon as possible; maybe you request to meet those few days before the first day of school with the new team. There are options — you just have to work with the team to kind of figure out how to move forward.”
Cull says, “With only a few weeks to go, why not try to see if you can get that meeting and start the new school year with a fully signed IEP? At the same time, you may be exhausted, and it’s fine to pick up the discussion where you left off in August.”
Introduce your child’s current IEP team and their new team, if possible
Dr. Pelangka says, “You can request to be a part of that meeting. It doesn't have to be a full IEP meeting—it could just be something a little bit less formal, if you're just wanting to make sure that they at least talk to one another and familiarize the new team with your child. If you want it to be very formal, and you want things documented, of course, then you would call a full IEP, which might be a little harder to fit in. But I definitely recommend having that happen.” If your child will have multiple teachers, “it's not required to have every teacher in the IEP meeting. They're not necessarily going to have a chance to meet every single teacher, but the case manager would be the primary person to ensure that the new case manager is meeting the old case manager, and they're having that conversation, and then the new case manager’s overseeing all these other teachers.”
Ask your current IEP team to help introduce your child to their new team
The end of the school year is a great time to ask your child’s teachers and providers for tips on what works with your child and what doesn’t. Then, you can include that information in your child's IEP summary or in a letter to the new teachers briefly introducing your child and explaining what their strengths and needs are. This type of communication can be great because your child’s teachers will get feedback from other professionals in addition to you as the parent, and they’ll know exactly who they can go to with questions.
Review your IEP records for leftover to-dos
Take a look at your IEP meeting notes to see if there are other tasks to follow up on. Cull gives this advice:
For more information about transitions, check out our article about transition IEPs, which also links to our in-depth articles about the major factors to consider when our kids are transitioning between primary and secondary schools.
For students who use school-provided standers, iPads, Chromebooks, AAC devices, FM systems for hearing aids, etc., Dr. Pelangka says that the right to keep those devices over the summer is protected if the equipment is necessary for the student to access a free, appropriate education (FAPE).
If your child can keep their device during ESY but not during the month-long gap before the next school year, talk to your IEP team about your concerns about regression or your child losing access to communication. Dr. Pelangka says, “If there's any concern that your child's device is going to be taken away, for whatever reason, you can definitely put it in writing and see what the district's response is if they're going to require an IEP meeting in order for your child to continue to have access over summer….There are things that you can say as a parent to sway the district into understanding why it's a continued need, but you do have to prove that they need it in order to access FAPE. That's the way that the law is written.”
Keep working on AAC skills
If your child uses AAC, Cull says, “Don’t let the AAC device become a decorative brick. It’s important to practice the AAC use over the summer. Research shows that children are more likely to use AAC if they have strong communication partners. That is probably YOU. Even if you do not have parent training listed in your IEP, you can ask your speech therapist to suggest a few exercises to practice with the child. Involve the device in everyday life, such as ordering in restaurants and visiting places, or just play around together to find the words to a song or a joke.”
Check out our article about assistive technology for more answers to common questions about school-provided devices.
What if you don’t sign the IEP? You are on stay put. California requires parental consent to change your IEP, so if you don’t sign, the IEP stays put. In some other states, the IEP goes forward unless you challenge it with due process. In this case, the last signed IEP is your active IEP.
Cull says, “Stay put gives parents power, but it doesn't serve your child well to be working on last year's IEP goals forever. Accommodations and modifications should also need changes as your child makes progress. It’s better in California to sign your IEP partially — or with exception. It’s best to write a letter explaining your disagreement and asking for your letter to be attached to the signed IEP.”
Whether you’re just signing parts of the IEP or the entire document before the end of the school year, it’s vital to take time to read it thoroughly. Don’t sign the IEP at the meeting; take it home to read through a few times, take notes, and check everything for accuracy.
For more tips on how to review the IEP before signing and what to do if you’re in conflict with your IEP team, check out this article or add our step-by-step guidance to your account on the Undivided platform.
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