Criteria for extended school day on IEP?

Question

It's IEP time and I have a 7 year old student whose mother has requested an extended school day. His placement is a self-contained MD class and he has PT/OT & speech weekly during the school day.

It's largely a babysitting issue because his daycare dismissed him and she is paying a teenager to watch him after school until she gets home from work. I have been searching everywhere for information about how & why an extended school day would be written into the IEP. He has been making great progress toward goals and has mastered a few of them over the last year. There is no educational reason for an extended school day for him but she has an experienced former special ed teacher feeding her information on what to ask for--partly to make trouble for the school system (and the replacement teacher = me) because she was asked to resign. I need help on finding information on this issue. Thanks!

Answer 1

I don't believe that is even an option on a standard IEP = you can get ESY - extended school year, which means the district must provide summer school but in 27 years I have never heard of a school being required to keep a child after the standard school day ends.

Answer 2

There is no provision for an extended day in IDEA. Talk to your special ed director or find out who you can talk to as to how to handle this parent. Your administrator should also be involved. He or she makes the big bucks to do this type of thing so that you can teach.

Everything we do in special ed has to have educational relevance. Providing daycare isn't educationally relevant. Anyway, they would have to offer extensive proof that it is needed. Put the ball in their court. Everything that is done in terms of this will have to be done at an IEP meeting. Get some help with this.

Answer 3

Check the federal special ed laws called IDEA.

I am not sure where in this law it is concerning this, but i have heard LOTS of parents say that  children with IEP plans are NOT suppose to get help that is on the IEP plan after school.  It is NOT written in IDEA law that this can be done.

Go to www.schwablearning.org and sign up for free to post on their parent to parent message board. They will be able to tell you what to do.

Also go to www.wrightslaw.com and see if you can find the laws about this situation.

To tell you the truth, schools usually always ignore requests parents make that are not IN WRITING.  If parent did not request this in writing, you can use this to your advantage and just ignore her.  I don't know if your school works this way, but most of them do. You would be in your legal rights to do so if the request was not made in writing.

If the parent DID request this in writing, the IEP team is to give her PWN 'prior written notice' on their decision.

Whether the school agrees or disagrees wiht extended school day, they are to give parent PWN  listed with LEGAL reasons for their decisions.

So, find out the legalities concerning this and write them out in this PWN to give to her.

Here is a link from USDOE  about PWN --

http://idea.ed.gov/download/modelform2_P...

Another thing is, if it IS legal for child to stay after school (which I really doubt it is) then the school will HAVE to let child stay. If not, parent can take legal action against this.

Answer 4

I just wrote our school's extended school year policy and did quite a bit of research.  I suggest going to wrightslaw.com.  Even though it is a parent advocacy website, it represents the information clearly and without bias.  You can read several cases in law and see what has happened in the courts to be extra safe.  But they have excellent policy  guidelines.  It comes down to not having any single specific criteria.  It has to be individually based and part of the IEP.   And mainly it has to take into account the regression and retention the child is likely to experience if he doesn't have ESY.  That determination must be based on data.  I strongly suggest wright's law for a good reference.  I thought their information was better than what I could find from my state.

Answer 5

I would guess that it would dependent on regression of his skills and that the parent would have to argue that from the time he left school one day to the return the next day he shows regression.

Maybe also if the child is part of a behavioral type class such as ABA therapy for a child with autism.

Sounds like a bunch of c**p to me.

Have you asked and documented the reason the parent wants this request. Make sure you start documenting things such as conversations between the you and the parent. Just in case this gets ugly.

I would also contact your states special education office and find out directly from them.