Winding Down: 3 Special Education Advocate Tips for Ending the School Year Strong
Summer is around the corner! If you consider the end of your calendar year to be the last day of school, you’re about to observe another year gone by and take a moment — better the summer — to reflect and recharge.
As advocates for disability rights in schools, we’ve got some housekeeping to do before we retire those school planners: here are three tips for finishing the school year strong as you advocate for your child with disabilities.
Tip #1: Don’t wait.
Myth-buster: “sorry, the IEP process closes down with the school; let’s visit this in the fall”. FALSE. So false.
Right around this time every school year is when parents start reporting: “I asked the school to evaluate my child but they said I need to wait until the school starts next year because…(fill in the blank). “Wait”? Wait for what? If there’s a problem that’s interfering with your child’s ability to access the curriculum to the extent you suspect a disability, why would anyone advise you to wait to get to the bottom of it?!
Schools try to brush off or delay requests for initial evaluations that come in at the end of the school to — what other reason could there be? — save money. The non-administrative school staff members of the IEP team are typically not contracted over the summer, so bringing them in for an IEP meeting requires extra resources or the use of a thinly-spread central office summer staff team. Schools would much rather delay until September when they’re fully staffed again (and then ask you to hold off another 60 days or so to “see how the transition to a new grade goes”). Pass! Let’s get this thing moving.
The IEP process runs on a continual timeline that legally cannot be halted just because school’s out for the summer. Child Find requirements put the onus on the school to identify children who may qualify for special education and support services: put your request for evaluation in writing and submit it to the principal and IEP Chair. Once that request in writing is received, the school must respond promptly — usually around 10-15 calendar days depending on what district you’re in — and either grant your request to consider evaluation or give you a valid reason why they won’t. And “school’s out for summer” is never a valid reason (if a school gives stalls with this reason, you may want to seek help making a special education complaint against the school).
TIP #2: Know your ESY.
Once you’ve gotten through the process of how to qualify for special education and those supports have been put in place, keep in mind that special education can include qualification for Extended School Year, commonly referred to by its abbreviation — ESY. Extended School Year or ESY is just that: instruction extended through the summer specifically for students who have active IEPs.
Usually, schools around here pull out the ESY determination worksheet during March and April , so if ESY is something that hasn’t yet been discussed with you, get in touch with your IEP team now. ESY is a determination made by the team and — as a parent or guardian — you have the right to equal participation in being able to make that decision.
This area also has a myth that needs busting: sometimes we’ll see schools deny ESY simply based on the idea that the child’s disability isn’t severe enough to warrant ESY — also FALSE! There are multiple reasons why a child might qualify for ESY. For an extended read on qualifying for ESY, check out this guide from Leslie Margolis of Disability Rights Maryland.
Tip #3: Keep an eye out for that last progress report.
Progress reports are mini-reports on each goal contained in your child’s IEP: they may be nothing more than a couple of marked radio buttons at the bottom of a goal page, but they hold a lot of power. Here in Maryland, schools are required to send home progress reports at least as often as a parent is informed of a non-disabled student’s progress; so four times a year just like report cards.
It’s REALLY important to review those progress reports to ensure your child is making progress toward meeting each goal. If you see that the progress report states your child is “not making sufficient progress” to meet a certain goal or even multiple goals, call an IEP team meeting ASAP and ask for a collaborative review of the child’s progress to ascertain why your student is not on track to meet what the team initially determined was achievable.
Don’t stop there! The second objective of this IEP meeting will be to identify where things need to be shored up to ensure your child DOES make that progress: does your student need more intensive support? More individualized accommodations, perhaps? Remember: as a parent or guardian, you have the right to call an IEP meeting AT ANY TIME. If you don't know how to get an IEP, call us and we will help you.
Call the meeting and nip the problem in the bud rather than waiting for your annual IEP date to roll around again. This is also a mechanism for ensuring accountability.
Conclusion:
Tip #3 is your toolkit tip to be tucked away and reviewed quarterly, while Tip #1 and Tip #2 are situational but hands down the biggest complaints we, at Beacon, hear every year at this time. Granted, these are broad brushstrokes and certainly don’t encompass all the nuances that can arise (that ‘I’ in ‘IDEA’ can get tricky!).
We’d love to hear your IEP tips, ideas, and questions for the end of the school year! Please consider leaving a comment below or reaching out with topics you’d be interested in hearing more about. If you need help writing an IEP, we would be happy to give you a free consultation.