During the summer of 2016, Woodland Hills School District opened our doors to our“ Wolverines” who qualified for Extended School Year. These students were offered special education and related services in order to ensure their provision of a free appropriate public education( FAPE).
Extended School Year is a Federal and State Regulation: Federal- IDEA 300.106 and State Regulation-Chapter 14.132 for mandated service for students with disabilities who qualify. It requires that school districts( LEAs) must ensure that ESY services are available as necessary to provide a free and appropriate public education( FAPE). It means that Special Education Services and any Related Services that a student has according to his / her IEP is provided services beyond the 180-day school year. To be eligible, the student must meet criteria that demonstrates that they have regressed( reverted to a lower level of functioning as measured by a decrease in skills) by approximately 25 % which occurred as a result of an interruption in educational programming or whether the student has the capacity to recover those skills in which regression has occurred to the level before( prior) the interruption of educational programming( Recoupment).
It is important to note that Extended School Year is not a daycare, day camp or respite care services. The decision about who is eligible for extended school year is made at the building level and within the IEP process. There are seven( 7) specific criteria to qualifying for Extended School Year Services: 1. Regression-student has reverted to a lower level of functioning; 2. Recoupmentstudent is unable to recover skills of behaviors due to interruption in services due to school( holidays); 3. Combination of Regression / Recoupment; 4. Skill Mastery; 5. Self-Sufficiency and Independence; 6. Successive Interruptions( How much does this negatively impact student); 7. Severity of the student’ s disability.
In our school district, our special education teachers, paraprofessionals and other professionals monitor our students and collect data at least six( 6) different time points to determine if any regression or recoupment has occurred.
During our kick off year, summer of 2016, our students participated in fun and motivating activities that addressed each student’ s individualized academic, social / emotional, vocational / transition and / or behavioral goals. Our teachers used creative
ESY PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS
• Implementation of co-teaching model
• Daily administrative program supervision
• Transportation Services
• Technology integration
• Therapeutic Services
• Speech / Language Services
• Nursing Services
• Occupational / Physical Therapy
• Breakfast, lunch & snacks
• Art, creative expression
• Interactive special events
Woodland Hills Kicks Off our First Year Extended School Year Services Program!
hands-on activities such as building bird houses to combine creative math and science experiences. Teachers also embedded sensory alerting strategies such as music to engage students in their learning process. As the month of July progressed, the learning process for the students went beyond the classroom walls. We were able to incorporate on-campus fieldtrip experiences with the Humane Society and Swissvale Fire Department. Students were able to learn about their community and experience the pride of learning that former“ Wolverines” are contributing members of these community agencies.
As we concluded our first district ESY program, we were able to see a spark of excitement in the eyes of all those who participated. Teachers were planning ideas for next year, students were asking if the program would continue to be here next year, and positive parent comments could be heard about the length of the program day, the structure, and delight they could see in their child both before and after each ESY day.
During the 2016-2017 school year, we will continue to assess all strengths and needs of our first year in order to continue to build our ESY program. We are very grateful and would like to thank the following: our ESY planning Team members, our Board of Directors for sharing our vision and providing the opportunity to create, develop and implement our program; our parents for allowing their children to participate; the students for attending and working hard during the program; our principals for providing administrative supervision, all of our teachers and paraprofessionals, bus drivers, monitors and food service for helping us create a wonderful first year!
WOODLAND HILLS SCHOOL DISTRICT NEWS
oodland Hills WOODLAND HILLS SCHOOL DISTRICT NEWS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE WOODLAND HILLS FOUNDATION.
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