Meeting regarding ESY

[Christine M.]

Last week I had an IEP meeting for my son. When talk turned to ESY I said that I wanted the district to send him to a specific summer camp that focuses on social skills. The student services rep said she needed to talk to her boss as she wasn't certain on the district's policy on this.  Now this rep asked for me to have a meeting with her and her boss (executive director of student services) to discuss my request. 

Should I take this meeting with the IEP team present? I am afraid that anything said in this meeting will be outside of the jurisdiction of an IEP meeting and I won't be able to have things on the record. I'm not even certain this is appropriate. Any advice is appreciated.

[Carolyn Rowlett]

ESY and placement are IEP decisions, therefore a good argument can be made that the entire IEP team should be present.  Also because not all issues were resolved in the initial meeting, this is technically a continuation of the original IEP meeting and again, all team members should be present.  I would add in your correspondence to the school (in a nice way, if possible) that you hope the LEA representative who is present at the next meeting has the authority to commit school district resources, as required under the IDEA.

The bigger obstacle you may encounter (although I have not seen your data) is showing that your son is first, eligible for ESY and second, that a specific summer camp is what he is entitled to.  Was one (or both) of these decisions made during the original IEP meeting?  I would assume that at a minimum it was decided that ESY was appropriate due to data showing regression, or else the student services representative wouldn't even be going to her boss with this issue.  But you still have to show need for this specific summer camp, which could be difficult.  Without knowing the facts or data it's hard to say, but take for instance, that your son needs a group setting in which to practice his social skills.  The school may not be able to provide this during the summer, which would be an argument for sending him outside the district.  But then the problem becomes getting this specific summer camp.  The school district would have a right to choose which program he goes to, assuming it can give him the services for which he qualifies.

[JSD24]

Asking for camp is hard to argue.  The school will tend to say they can do the same type of instruction at ESY.  I would go to this meeting and request an IEP meeting if you feel you have the data to argue that this camp can meet a need that the school's ESY program can't.