Is Your Child Eligible for ESY (Extended School Year)?

Is your child eligible for ESY?   The IEP team is responsible for making this determination.   On the IEP, this page is listed as Special Education Determinations.  “Determine whether the student needs an extended school year (ESY) program.  An extended school...

What is ESY (Extended School Year)?

New Jersey’s definition of ESY “Extended school year services” follows the federal wording exactly:  “special education and related services that are provided to a student with a disability beyond the normal school year in accordance with the student’s IEP at no cost...

RTI…how it should work

Basically, RTI requires schools to provide high-quality instruction and intervention specific to a student and maintain progress data regarding the student’s performance so that informed educational decisions can be made.

Memorizing times tables

Just thinking of all the IEPs I reviewed with a math goal for a student to learn his/her times tables… For example, a child had the same goal in his/her IEP for years…especially true in elementary school through middle school. Meanwhile, each year the syllabus required him/her to be learning concepts.

Effective goals

I’ve often seen goals written that are not “measurable.” For example, “Student will write a complete sentence by October 31 (end of first quarter marking period); Student will write a paragraph by January 31 (end of second quarter marking period.)” This goal does not include the level of skill expected (50%? 70%?).