ESY-Measurable Goals

[Ashley Reneau]

My nephew is in Kindergarten this year and was evaluated for his IEP in preschool.  He is autistic and nonverbal. I fought last year for ESY and was denied because they did not see regression. Long story short I fought with them because regression is not the only factor in Ohio.

My question is what are some measurable goals to show proof he has regression (since that is what they are going with). It was his first IEP so it’s a very blanket IEP. 

[JSD24]

I pulled some info on Ohio and most of ESY is about regression/recoupment.  (https://www.ocecd.org/Downloads/ESY Disability Rights Ohio 20132.pdf)  To determine if regression/recoupment is a factor, the student needs a track record but returning to school for 1st grade can help you establish this record.  You look at the goals.  Let's say there is a behavior goal that X will be able to wait one minute for the teacher to finish with another student before they start acting frustrated.  Let's say in June, your nephew could wait 40 seconds and now they can only wait for 10.  You now need to look at recoupment.  When does this 10 go back to 40?  If this goes back next week, he's recouped in a week & this doesn't meet ESY criteria.  If it's November & he's not back to 40, I'd say he needs ESY.

You need to do this for every goal in the IEP.  You also need to the progress monitoring reports to have measured data.  "Making progress toward goal" as the level of progress and you can't tell about regression/recoupment.  The goals on the website tend to be measurable so I'll post a link.  https://adayinourshoes.com/iep-goal-bank/

When it comes to emerging skills, if he was starting to say 3 words in April and this grew to 6 in May, that's an emerging skill.  It would also need to be an IEP goal for the school to look at to say he needs ESY for an emerging skill.  (IMO every non-verbal student needs communication goals of some sort:  AAC, PECS, ASL or S2C if you're OK with something that's not evidenced based.)

If there are issues with measuring goals, now is a good time to advocate for the school to provide data that's empirical and not subjective.  Unfortunately, that will only help with ESY next summer.  Keep in mind that data on regression/recoupment can be taken whenever there is a break at school so get them to take data with fall, winter & spring breaks.

[Jenna]

I'm in Ohio and would like to echo the above- Ohio focuses almost entirely on regression without adequate recoupment within a reasonable time. 

[Ashley Reneau]

Thank you for your response.  We have a meeting next month so I will definitely look into the goals to revamp the IEP.  He unfortunately missed a lot of school from being sick last year and the school used that for their denial.  They indicated because of the amount of school missed they did not have enough data to show regression. We definitely need to add behavior goals as he has been refusing to stay in his seat this year.  

The speech therapist at the school declined AAC and stated the goal is for him to talk.  We are revisiting that next month and requesting AAC. 

[Lisa Lightner]

Begin to gather data when he is home--Thanksgiving week, winter holidays. What/how does he regress then, and how long does it take him to get back on track. Document all of it so you have something to work with later on this school year.

[kaydeethree]

Do you have info regarding the same for state of Michigan?

[Lisa Lightner]

It should be in the spreadsheet in here: https://adayinourshoes.com/idea-individuals-with-disabilities-education-act/