Hawaii Extended School Year Services: ESY Eligibility and How to Advocate for It

Every summer, Hawaii families with children receiving special education services face the same question: will the school offer Extended School Year services, and if not, should it? ESY is one of the most commonly disputed areas of IEP law in Hawaii, and it is one where many schools make legally indefensible decisions to deny services without proper review of the evidence. If your child loses skills significantly over breaks, or if the school has told you ESY is "only for severe cases," this post explains the actual legal standard and what you can do if ESY is wrongly denied.

What Extended School Year Services Are

Extended School Year (ESY) services are special education and related services provided beyond the regular school year — most commonly during summer, but also potentially during other extended breaks. ESY is not the same as summer school. Regular summer school is an optional program open to students generally. ESY is an individualized set of services built on your child's IEP goals, provided because the child's disability-related needs require it.

ESY services can include any service that appears in the IEP: specialized instruction, speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, behavioral support, or transportation. The services provided during ESY do not have to be the full scope of what the child receives during the school year — they should be what is necessary to prevent substantial regression or preserve the child's ability to benefit from the school-year program.

How Hawaii Determines ESY Eligibility

Under IDEA and Hawaii Administrative Rules Chapter 60, ESY services must be provided when they are necessary for the child to receive a Free Appropriate Public Education. The IEP team — which includes you — determines ESY eligibility based on an individualized analysis of the child's needs. Schools cannot apply a blanket policy that ESY is only for students with severe or profound disabilities, or that ESY is only available to students who regress during the summer. Those blanket policies are illegal.

The primary factors the IEP team considers include:

Regression and recoupment. Will the child lose skills significantly during a break, and if so, how long will it take to regain those skills at the start of the next school year? Research consistently shows that some children with disabilities lose substantially more ground during extended breaks than their non-disabled peers. If regression is severe and recoupment takes weeks or months into the school year, the child is not benefiting meaningfully from the school-year program — which creates an ESY obligation.

Degree of progress on IEP goals. If a child is making significant progress on critical goals and a break would interrupt that progress at a critical developmental window, ESY may be necessary to maintain the trajectory.

Nature of the disability and the relationship to breaks. Some disabilities — particularly autism spectrum disorder and severe developmental delays — are associated with more significant regression. Data from previous summers, school breaks, or absences is relevant.

Emerging skills. When a child is at a critical juncture in acquiring a foundational skill, interrupting instruction at that point can cause disproportionate harm. ESY may be necessary even if the child isn't expected to regress significantly if the developmental window is time-sensitive.

Behavioral and medical needs. Children with behavioral needs maintained by consistent structure and routine may deteriorate significantly without services during extended breaks, making ESY necessary to prevent harm.

What Triggers an ESY Determination

ESY eligibility must be considered at every IEP meeting where it is timely — typically the annual review. The IEP team must individually assess whether the student requires ESY services; it cannot simply assume the student doesn't need them without review.

If your child's IEP meeting occurs in the spring, ESY should be on the agenda. If it is not, you can raise it. Bring data: previous service records, teacher notes about regression, any assessments or data from prior summers or long breaks. Regression data doesn't have to be a formal study — documented observations from teachers, therapists, and parents about skill loss over previous breaks are relevant evidence.

Common Ways Hawaii Schools Deny ESY Improperly

Applying a blanket "severe only" policy. Some schools operate as if ESY is reserved for students with the most significant disabilities. This is not the legal standard. Any student whose individual needs demonstrate regression, recoupment problems, or other qualifying factors is entitled to ESY consideration — regardless of disability category.

Treating ESY as optional for the school rather than an individualized entitlement. ESY eligibility is determined by the child's needs, not by whether the school has chosen to run a summer program. If the school doesn't run its own ESY program, it must contract for services or fund private providers.

Denying ESY based on cost or staffing. "We don't have the staff for summer" and "the budget doesn't support ESY" are not legal bases for denial. If the child requires ESY to receive FAPE, HIDOE must provide it regardless of administrative constraints.

Failing to discuss ESY at the IEP meeting. If ESY is not addressed at the annual IEP meeting, that is a procedural failure. The school is required to consider it.

What to Do If ESY Is Denied

If the IEP team denies ESY services and you believe the child qualifies, take these steps:

Request Prior Written Notice immediately. Any denial of ESY is a refusal to initiate a service, which triggers the PWN requirement. Request it in writing at the IEP meeting or the day after. The PWN must document the reasons for the denial, the data the team relied on, and the options it considered and rejected.

Document the regression. If the school year ends and your child does not receive ESY, maintain detailed logs of what happens during the summer: skills the child had at the end of the school year, any observable decline, behaviors that emerge or worsen, and the recoupment time needed at the start of the following school year. This data becomes evidence for an ESY claim the following year — or for a compensatory education claim if the denial was wrongful.

File a State Complaint. If the team refused to even discuss ESY, or denied it based on a blanket policy rather than an individualized determination, file a State Complaint with the MAC Branch. Blanket ESY policies are a documented IDEA violation.

Request compensatory ESY services. If your child was wrongly denied ESY and you can document regression as a result, you may be entitled to compensatory services — funded private instruction or therapy to make up for what was missed. This is particularly relevant on the neighbor islands, where ESY staffing shortages compound improper denials.

The Hawaii IEP & 504 Advocacy Playbook includes an ESY eligibility checklist, a PWN request template for ESY denials, and a regression tracking log designed to build the evidence record for an ESY claim.

ESY on the Neighbor Islands

On neighbor islands, ESY is even more fraught. Providers who are already scarce during the school year are frequently unavailable in summer, and schools sometimes use provider shortages as a reason to deny or limit ESY. As with any service, provider unavailability does not excuse HIDOE from its ESY obligation. If the school cannot staff ESY locally, it must fund private providers, approve teletherapy, or cover other alternatives.

This is a documented systemic problem on Maui, the Big Island, Kauai, Molokai, and Lanai. If your Complex Area has a history of ESY service gaps, the escalation path goes to the District Educational Specialist and the Complex Area Superintendent, with parallel notification to the state Special Education Section.

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