If you look up IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Act which was revised in 1997 just about everyone of your schools is probably breaking the law in some fashion. You should get a hold of your procedural safe guards. Your child's school has to give them to you if you ask for them, or you can just look them up on the internet by state. Schools are not aloud to just tell you no, or we cannot do that. They can't tell you, your child doesn't qualify for ESY because she doesn't have the right disability. They have to give you a written notice telling you what they have refused and why. You also have the right to refute anything they say. When it comes to extended school year they are suppose to consider more that regression. It is suppose to be completely individualized.

we had to request that it be added to his IEP. Here in California he will attend a 5 day/wk, 4 hr/day program at a different school with different teachers and will be lumped together with kids with different needs. He will get his ST and OT though, in fact I plan to arrange to come just during therapy time. I think the rest of it would be counter-productive for him.

My son will go to ESY for six weeks, four mornings a week, with the same peers from the regular school year. His usual, excellent speech therapist as well as the best autism teacher in the entire school (which has an outstanding self contained as well as inclusion program during the regular year) will be working this summer - in fact, if his application to teach summer school wasn't selected, the autism teacher was planning to volunteer. At the end of the day, my son will self administer his enzymes, then eat his organic, gfcf, preservative free, school lunch. (I believe school lunch is free in the summer although usually he pays the same as anyone else.) I could not ask for a better school program. Where? you might be asking...it's a Chicago public school.

Speech therapy, 30 minutes a day, twice a week, for the month of June. Honestly, though, it's ok with me. The special ed program here is a joke. They lump all the special ed kids age 3-14 into one room (small school). The last year my son went, he was the youngest child in the room by 5 years. (He was 3, the next youngest was 8 and the others were 12-14.)I went in to observe an evaluation and the older kids were either coloring or learning to crochet. Yep, THAT will help them later on in life...... Also, despite the fact that several kids desperately need intensive physical and occupational therapies, they are offered only on a consultation basis. Why? Because there is only one (public)place (that the school has a contract with) here that offers pediatric therapies and they refuse to come out to the school for more than evals and consults every 3 months. So, we get to pay for PT and OT out of pocket.

No ESY for my son in Utah. He would have to show significant regression over Christmas or Spring Break to qualify.

Texas: M-F, 7:45 - 12:45, 3-4 weeks. "Social skills" and learning about feelings. It's held at the local high school (nice). DS thinks he's in High School now. Then we'll have 4 *thirty minute* sessions over 2 weeks of one on one tutoring. At the ARD I explained that thirty minutes will barely be enough time to transition there and out. I also asked if he's in "Fourth Grade" (they skipped him a grade to be with his age appropriate peers) and reading on a First Grade level (thanks to a year stuck in the behavior room and zero educational intervention, why can't we have an educational ESY? *crickets.* Thanks to our crummy Governor and our "9 Billion Dollar rainy day fund* DS is *just* number 9, 987 on the CLASS waiting list for State services. I think a tutor is in order for the rest of the summer.

Runs from June 28th to July 23rd. Four hours per day. At a different school. Different teacher. Busing provided per his I.E.P. Won't get Speech or OT while there. All disabilities together. Mimimal that the school district can do. With California's budget crisis I'm surprised they even have it period. Next year I will be paying for my son's bus transportation because there's no money in the budget!

Our district, in PA, typically offers a canned academic leaning program which they provide inhouse. Usually we do not take it because it is not appropriate, and have opted for private tutoring.

This summer; however, they are offering an acting social skills camp. And while it is still offered inhouse, it is much more promising. I am hoping my son enjoys it. He is also getting tutoring via ESY during the month of August to help with reading.

I am keeping my fingers crossed! :-)

Here in the Round Rock, Texas Independent School District, my ASD son gets 2 hours of ESY, 4 days a week, for 5 weeks. The kids, ages Kindergarten through 5th grade, are all lumped together into one, generic special needs classroom at one elementary school (not the one he normally goes to). Some kids go from 8 - 10 am and others from 10 am to 12 noon. Luckily this summer, the teacher who agreed to work ESY is the same one who will be his teacher for the next 3 years, so it is a nice way for them to get to know each other.

Very few kids are approved for ESY here - they have to have shown clear, documented regression or be very, very far behind in some critical area, like self-help skills or behavior (this is why my son qualifies).

Back in the Olympia, WA school district where we moved from, all ASD kids automatically got ESY (except they just called it summer school - I never heard the term ESY until I moved here to Texas). And if I remember correctly, it was for 3 or 4 hours per day, 4 days per week, for 5 weeks.

Our campus is closed during the summer; last year we were offered but declined ESY (OT, PT, speech) through L.A.U.S.D. 4 weeks, 4 days 8-12, but at a different school far from our home. This year, due to budget cuts (they cut the last week of the school year, too), we were not offered any ESY. I have not asked around to see if anyone else is doing it, or if the dedicated special needs campuses in our local district are to remain open for ESY.

Our school district normally distributes an ESY brochure which states the dates and times it will occur. This is completely contrary to the notion that special education services are "individualized". How can a canned program, predetermined in scope, content and length possibly be individualized? The quality varies depending on the classroom teachers from decent programming to mediocre babysitting.

Our kids are all lumped together at one school. The only teacher for the kids in my daughter's group is the teacher who has abused her in the past so NOT GOOD! We negotiated Home instruction due to the past abuse (poor other kids though). Without that she's be up a creek without a paddle, even worse than the regular school year crap!

Monday through Friday 8-noon(ish)
6/21-7/16.
Same teacher and aides, same classroom. I wish it were a week longer, but I'm happy that the class and instructors are the same.

My son is 3, so this will be our first experience with ESY (doesn't start until July). Just 4 weeks, 3 hrs a day, 4 days a week....at a different school than he's been attending. He's non-verbal & I WILL be driving him to school myself.

In the fall, he'll go to yet another new school (he was in an "overflow" preschool class, due to moving into the state & a late birthday....UGH). I sure hope ESY & his next preschool class are BETTER about communicating about his day. This year has been....disappointing, as far as the preschool experience (comparing it to his teacher/class where he first started preschool, at age 2 1/2, in a different state). We love where we live now, but it's been an adjustment for all. There aren't many things I miss about VA....but his therapists & preschool teacher there were awesome.

I think I've mostly repressed my memories of ESY. But I have not forgotten being told that they couldn't write notes home because they didn't have any paper! I some how don't think they did much!! The 49th (?) state in education, Georgia, where we are thankful for that 50th state so we are not last.

In Georgia, it is pathetic and not worth it with the school system.
We have a great nonprofit organization that has summer camp and uses volunteers from the local university (typically students in teaching). The camp does everything and will try to work on IEP goals but the skills are built in to the activities. If your child needs 1:1 which most do as they may be in wheelchairs, they get 1:1.

It is not just autism but all disabilities which is important for having a community where disabled kids and teens can go and feel great about themselves. Some kids are only severely physically disabled but it is nice because they add the positive cognitive (or NT) to the mix. There is no bullying, stares, or teasing like they get in school all year as anyone who even goes there is booted after counseling.

My child gets 1:1 but I still send two therapists, one medically trained to stand-by for the medical emergencies, and the other who knows my child well from home to be around to make sure that communication is not an issue or problem. The camp is 200.00 per week (with discounts for volunteering) and scholarships. Most people do not bring therapists and the school district will usually pay for the camp if what they offer is not appropriate. We do not bother anymore as it is a PIA.

I'm in MD and ESY, while they do try, is basically babysitting. It runs from July 5-30, M-TH 8 to Noon. You choose 3 or 4 "important" goals (I thought they were all important) from the IEP to focus on. It's not perfect but it beats nothing and it allows me some one on one time w/ my other child during the summer.

Summer time:
I always let the kids chill out.
Then in the evenings we would read for pleasure, something that was just too much for them during the school year. That is they were too tired or busy for it.

One summer we read all dog stories.
We also taught them how to raise a garden.
How to ride and care for their horse.
Just to be around the extended family, and be around farming chores and not be so tired.

Ugly--programs were limited before and now with the money crunch it's even worse. Joshua's had no ESY program since he was 5. In the great state of SC--if you are verbal-you can pretty much forget summer program.
When I tell them he doesn't retain what he learned in the school year--over the summer--they tell me it doesn't count if he never learned it in the first place. In the beginning we fought like crazy for summer help and lost. No money to carry the fight to the end Regular school year better though. Maurine