Extended School Year in Kentucky: When Your Child's IEP Must Include Summer Services

Summer is coming. The IEP meeting happened in April, and nobody mentioned Extended School Year services. You are starting to realize your child may regress significantly during a three-month break — and that the school may be legally required to provide services to prevent that.

Most Kentucky parents do not know ESY exists until their child loses months of hard-won progress and the school says "let's start fresh in September." Here is what the law actually requires.

What Extended School Year Services Are

Extended School Year (ESY) refers to specially designed instruction and related services provided beyond the normal school calendar — typically over summer break — at no cost to the parent. It is part of a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) for students who need it, not an optional enrichment program.

The purpose of ESY is specific and limited: it is for the maintenance of existing skills and the prevention of severe regression. It is not summer school. It is not an opportunity to work on new goals. It exists to preserve progress a student has already made when the data shows that student will significantly lose that progress over a break and will not recoup it within a reasonable time once school resumes.

The Legal Framework in Kentucky

Under 707 KAR 1:290 Section 8, ESY eligibility in Kentucky must be determined on an individual basis. The ARC is expressly prohibited from:

• Limiting ESY services to specific disability categories
• Placing arbitrary limits on the amount or duration of ESY services
• Making a blanket district policy that only certain types of students receive ESY

Every determination must be based on the individual student's data. If your child's data shows significant regression and delayed recoupment, the law requires the ARC to address it.

The Regression-Recoupment Standard

The primary legal test for ESY eligibility in Kentucky is regression and recoupment:

Regression: Does the student significantly lose skills during school breaks compared to the progress documented immediately before the break?

Recoupment: How long does it take the student to recoup those skills once school resumes? If it takes more than a reasonable time — and for students with more significant disabilities, courts have found that even 4-6 weeks of recoupment time after a break may be too long — that supports an ESY determination.

The only way to assess regression and recoupment honestly is with data. Under Kentucky guidelines, IEP implementers must collect progress monitoring data on measurable annual goals immediately before and immediately after school breaks — not just annually. If your child's school is not collecting this pre/post-break data, they do not have the evidence base to make a meaningful ESY determination at the ARC meeting.

Other Factors the ARC Must Consider

Regression-recoupment is the most common basis for ESY, but Kentucky and federal guidance recognize other factors:

Degree of progress: Is the student making such slow progress toward IEP goals that a long break will effectively erase the gains made during the year? For students at critical learning junctures — early communication skills, emergent literacy, foundational self-care skills — a three-month gap may be educationally devastating in a way that a short break would not be.

Nature of the disability: Some disabilities, particularly autism, severe intellectual disability, and significant communication impairments, create a higher likelihood of regression because the skills being learned are not generalized or automatic. This is a factor the ARC should weigh even without a full year of regression data for a new student.

Critical periods of development: Is the student at a point where skill development is particularly time-sensitive? Early language acquisition in a preschool-aged student with autism, for instance, involves developmental windows where interruption carries heightened consequences.

Behavioral considerations: Severe escalation of behavioral difficulties after breaks, to the point that it takes weeks to reestablish a functional educational environment, can also support ESY.

How to Raise ESY at the ARC Meeting

The ARC should discuss ESY as part of the annual IEP review — it is not a separate meeting or a special request. If the topic does not come up and you believe your child needs ESY, raise it.

Before the meeting, gather any evidence of post-break regression you have observed at home. If your child's communication, self-care, or academic skills noticeably drop in September compared to where they were in May, write that down with specific examples. Even parent observation, while not as strong as formal data, is relevant information the ARC must consider.

Ask the ARC at the meeting:

• "What pre- and post-break progress monitoring data exists from this school year?"
• "Has the team analyzed regression and recoupment patterns for [child's name]?"
• "What is the basis for the ESY determination being made today?"

If the team says "we don't think ESY is necessary" without referencing any data, ask what data they are using to support that conclusion.

If the District Refuses ESY

A refusal to provide ESY must come in writing as a Prior Written Notice (PWN). That notice must explain what data was used to determine ESY was not necessary, what options the ARC considered, and why they were rejected.

If you believe the refusal was made without adequate data collection, or based on budget considerations rather than your child's individual needs, you can challenge the decision. Options include:

• Requesting an ARC meeting mid-year to review regression data from an earlier break (winter break data collected in January, for instance)
• Filing a state complaint with the KDE if you believe the district applied a categorical policy rather than making an individual determination
• Requesting mediation to resolve the ESY dispute before summer begins

What ESY Services Typically Look Like in Kentucky

ESY is not necessarily a full summer school program. The services should be designed based on the specific skills at risk of regression. Common ESY service arrangements in Kentucky include:

• Speech-language therapy sessions (often 1-3 times per week during summer)
• Reading instruction in a structured literacy program
• Occupational therapy to maintain fine motor or sensory regulation skills
• Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy for students with autism
• Social skills instruction or behavioral support programming

In rural Kentucky, ESY services face the same provider shortage challenges as regular school year services. If the district cannot provide ESY services because no qualified providers are available in the summer months, they must contract with a private provider or make other arrangements — not simply cancel the services.

Planning Ahead

ESY decisions made at the spring annual review become part of the IEP for the following school year. If you believe your child will need ESY this coming summer, raise it at the spring ARC meeting before the school year ends. Ask specifically what data the team will use, confirm it is being collected, and request the ESY determination be documented in the Conference Summary.

The Kentucky IEP & 504 Blueprint includes a guide to the ESY determination process, a template for documenting observed regression, and guidance on the state complaint process if the district refuses ESY without an adequate data-based justification.

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