Vermont Extended School Year Services: ESY Eligibility and How to Get It Written into Your Child's IEP

Every spring, Vermont parents with children on IEPs face the same question: will my child receive services over the summer? And every spring, some districts tell parents that summer services aren't available, aren't necessary, or aren't funded the same way they used to be. Some of this is policy confusion. Some of it isn't.

Extended School Year (ESY) services are a federally required component of a Free Appropriate Public Education when the IEP team determines they are necessary. Vermont's Special Education Rules (Series 2360) reinforce and clarify this federal mandate. If your child qualifies, the district must provide ESY — at no cost to you — regardless of the school calendar, budget pressures, or what other families in the district receive.

What ESY Is and What It Isn't

ESY services are special education and related services provided beyond the regular school year — typically during summer months, but sometimes also during winter or spring breaks. They are not summer school in the traditional sense. A student doesn't attend ESY to keep up with curriculum. A student receives ESY to prevent significant regression of skills already achieved and to avoid the need for excessive recoupment time after a break.

The distinction matters because it changes who qualifies. ESY is about protecting what a child has already learned, not accelerating academic progress. It's often most relevant for students whose disabilities significantly affect skill retention across extended breaks — students with severe autism, intellectual disabilities, significant cognitive impairments, or complex communication needs. But it can also be appropriate for students with other profiles if the data supports significant regression risk.

Vermont's ESY Eligibility Criteria

Vermont Rule 2360 requires that the IEP team consider ESY for every child receiving special education services. "Consider" is a real obligation — teams cannot skip the conversation.

The primary eligibility factor is regression and recoupment: whether the student will substantially regress on critical skills during a break from school services, and whether the time needed to recover (recoup) those skills after the break is excessive.

Vermont's rules specify additional factors the team should consider:

• Degree of progress toward IEP goals. A student making rapid progress on critical skills may be at higher risk of regression during extended breaks.
• Emerging critical skills. If a child is at a critical learning juncture — just beginning to acquire a foundational communication or self-care skill — a summer gap may significantly disrupt acquisition.
• Nature and severity of the disability. Students with more significant disabilities and greater dependence on routine and structured support are typically more vulnerable to regression.
• Special circumstances. Behavioral difficulties that may intensify without structured supports, or medical needs that require ongoing therapeutic intervention, can support an ESY determination.

Critically, Vermont rules prohibit districts from limiting ESY eligibility to specific disability categories or capping the amount of ESY services a student can receive. The determination must be individualized. A district cannot say "we only offer ESY to students with autism" or "we cap ESY at four weeks." Those categorical limitations violate both federal and Vermont law.

How the ESY Decision Gets Made

The IEP team makes the ESY determination at the annual IEP meeting (or at a separate meeting if needed). This means parents are part of the conversation.

To make a strong case for ESY, come to the meeting with:

Regression data. Progress reports, teacher observations, and assessment results taken at the start of the previous school year compared to the end — this shows how much ground was lost over the prior summer. If your school uses data-based progress monitoring, those graphs showing September performance drops are your evidence.

Your own observations. As the parent, you see your child in the summer. Document specific skill areas where you observe decline after a school break. Be specific — "She lost three months of progress on her communication board use after summer vacation" is stronger than "she forgot things over the summer."

Medical or therapeutic context. If your child's private therapist (speech, OT, behavioral) has observations about regression during unstructured breaks, a written statement from that provider can be compelling.

The IEP goal at stake. ESY is most defensible when tied to specific critical IEP goals. Identify which goals are most at risk from a summer gap and be ready to connect regression risk to those specific skills.

What ESY Services Look Like

ESY services are not required to replicate the full school year program. They should be individualized to address the specific skills at risk of regression.

For a student with significant autism and emerging communication skills, ESY might be daily structured sessions with a speech-language pathologist and behavioral support to maintain AAC use. For a student with intellectual disabilities working on functional daily living skills, ESY might be structured community-based instruction twice a week. For a student with severe anxiety and a fragile school reentry profile, ESY might be biweekly counseling sessions to maintain coping strategies and school readiness.

The services should be clearly specified in the IEP: provider, duration, frequency, location, and which IEP goals they address.

Act 173 and ESY Funding

Some Vermont parents have heard district staff suggest that Act 173's census-based funding model makes it harder to provide ESY services, or that ESY is now treated differently under the new funding structure. This framing is misleading.

Act 173 changed how Vermont reimburses school districts for the cost of special education — it did not change federal IDEA requirements, including the requirement to provide ESY when the IEP team determines it's necessary for FAPE. A district cannot deny ESY because of budget constraints under Act 173. If a district tells you it cannot provide ESY for financial reasons, that is an illegal basis for denial.

If the district denies your ESY request, ask for the denial in writing — specifically, a Prior Written Notice (Form 7a) explaining the reasons, the data used, and the alternatives considered. A pattern of ESY denials without individualized justification is grounds for an AOE administrative complaint.

What to Do When ESY Is Denied

Document the denial in writing. Request Prior Written Notice if it is not automatically provided. This document is your evidence.

Gather regression data. If you didn't bring documentation to the IEP meeting, gather it now and request a reconvening to present it. Parents can request IEP meetings at any time.

File an AOE administrative complaint. If you believe the district is violating Vermont's ESY requirements — either by categorically denying ESY or by failing to conduct an individualized analysis — an administrative complaint to the AOE is the appropriate route. The AOE investigates and issues a written decision within 60 days and can order corrective action.

Consider mediation. If the dispute is about the scope or amount of ESY services rather than whether they're required at all, mediation can be an effective way to negotiate a resolution without formal proceedings.

The Vermont IEP & 504 Advocacy Playbook at /us/vermont/advocacy/ includes ESY request guidance, Prior Written Notice analysis tools, and scripts for documenting regression evidence — all formatted for Vermont's specific regulatory requirements. Understanding what the law actually requires on ESY is one of the clearest ways to identify when a district is cutting corners rather than conducting a genuine individualized analysis.

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