My child’s IEP said she was to receive ESY services - OT, PT, and Speech Therapy. ST was provided throughout the summer. There was no OT or PT. The district stated it was not able to find therapists. They said I could find a therapist, and I did. Then, the district failed to provide information in a timely manner to the therapy agency. No services were provided during summer.
The school offered to provide these services during the school year to “make up.” But my child regressed in all of her motor skills during the summer. I thought avoiding this regression was the reason for ESY?
I’m sorry to hear that the school dropped the ball on your child’s OT and PT this summer. Unfortunately, this problem is not unusual.
The school is offering to “compensate” your child by providing the services, now, that they were required to provide in the summer (ESY services). Compensatory services is a common remedy when a school fails to implement an IEP. I assume they plan to provide compensatory services, in addition to the services they agreed to provide during this school year.
I do have some questions (you’ve already answered one).
- Did your child regress during the summer?
- How much did she regress?
- Do you have objective data about her skills at the end of the last school year and now, at the beginning of this school year?
- Can you “measure” her regression?
If you can demonstrate her regression, you may be able to request that she receive more intensive services now, to bring her up to where she should have been if the school hadn’t dropped the ball.
Here’s another suggestion. History tends to repeat itself. Since the school did not provide OT and PT services this summer, you and the school need a backup plan if these problems occur again.
By law:
- the school can either provide services or,
- they can contract with non-school providers to provide services.
You can request that a private agency provide services, or that the private agency is informed that they may be needed (and they have her records). In that event, they can step into the breach quickly if problems crop up again.
Tags: Compensatory services · ESY · IEPs · OT · PT · Speech Therapy1 Comment
1 response so far ↓
My son just began kindergarten in a year round school. He had ESY on his last IEP. (Unfortunately, this past summer, they worked on his old goals, not the current goals.) On this year’s IEP, they marked the box indicating he is not eligible for ESY, but in the comment section of the IEP, they stated he is eligible, but it is not being provided due to a lack of funds and the current budget (we live in crisis-ridden California). I am enrolling him in a private program that will work on his IEP goals, along with private ST and OT. I plan to request district re-imbursement. Am I required to inform them of my intent to obtain private services at the districts expense before he begins to receive services? I know our state is in a crisis, but is this a valid reason?