Making the Most of Extended School Year: A Guide for Special Education Teachers
Sydney Lewis
//
Apr 3, 2025
As summer approaches and educators prepare for Extended School Year (ESY) programs, you might be wondering how to make this time valuable for your students. After all, you've worked incredibly hard all year to help your students progress, and summer is your opportunity to both preserve those gains and test drive new systems that make the whole process easier.
Plus, ESY offers unique opportunities that the regular school year may not. From smaller groups to more flexible scheduling, ESY allows for more focused work without some of the regular-year constraints.
ESY: More than summer school
Extended School Year isn't simply summer school for students with special needs: It's a targeted intervention designed to prevent significant regression in critical skills.
Think about Jason, who worked all year to master reading CVC words independently. Or Maria, who finally learned to transition between activities without behavioral incidents. Without summer learning opportunities, students with IEPs lose an average of 27% more academic progress than their peers, requiring 3-4 weeks longer to return to end-of-year performance levels. (source)
This is precisely why ESY exists: to maintain the momentum you've built throughout the school year and prevent that dreaded "summer slide" that can be particularly devastating for your students.
The connection to IEPs
As you know, not every student with an IEP qualifies for ESY. The determination is made based on several factors, including evidence that the student has significantly regressed during previous breaks and taken an unusually long time to recoup their learning after returning to school. In other words, they have specific goals that require maintenance—which is where your role becomes crucial.
Why data matters
We know, we know: Data isn’t the most exciting part of teaching. But during ESY, your documentation becomes extraordinarily valuable for several reasons:
It guides your instruction
Quality data helps you:
Pinpoint exactly which skills need the most attention
Track whether your interventions are effective
Make timely adjustments when strategies aren't working
Celebrate genuine progress with families
Without regular data collection, ESY can lack direction. With it, you have a roadmap for every student.
It supports future planning
The data you collect during ESY provides critical information for:
The receiving teacher in the fall
IEP development for the coming year
Decisions about future ESY eligibility
Evidence of what teaching strategies work best for each student
Those few weeks of summer documentation can influence educational decisions for months to come.
It justifies the value of ESY
ESY programs require significant resources, and districts are always looking for areas to reduce costs. When you collect meaningful data, you're not just helping your current students—you're helping ensure that quality programming will be available for students in the future.
Making data collection manageable
Data collection doesn't have to be overwhelming, and ESY is the perfect opportunity to try a new system that you can continue in the fall if it works for you.
Focus on priority goals: Concentrate on the specific IEP objectives identified for ESY maintenance rather than trying to track everything.
Work backwards: Create benchmarks that track progress towards those goals so you can see growth throughout the summer rather than trying to measure it all at the end.
Schedule it consistently: Block out specific times for assessment so it becomes routine rather than an afterthought.
Use multiple formats: Mix data from formal assessments with anecdotal notes to create a comprehensive picture of each student's performance.
Remember, even brief but consistent documentation is more valuable than elaborate systems that are too cumbersome to maintain.
Your impact lasts beyond summer
As you plan for ESY, remember that your work during these summer weeks reverberates throughout the entire educational experience of your students. By preventing regression and carefully documenting student performance, you're building bridges between school years that help students maintain continuous progress.
At Mela Mela, we’re working with special education teachers and paraprofessionals to simplify data collection. Click here to check out our ESY Pilot and contact us to learn more about how you can participate.
As summer approaches and educators prepare for Extended School Year (ESY) programs, you might be wondering how to make this time valuable for your students. After all, you've worked incredibly hard all year to help your students progress, and summer is your opportunity to both preserve those gains and test drive new systems that make the whole process easier.
Plus, ESY offers unique opportunities that the regular school year may not. From smaller groups to more flexible scheduling, ESY allows for more focused work without some of the regular-year constraints.
ESY: More than summer school
Extended School Year isn't simply summer school for students with special needs: It's a targeted intervention designed to prevent significant regression in critical skills.
Think about Jason, who worked all year to master reading CVC words independently. Or Maria, who finally learned to transition between activities without behavioral incidents. Without summer learning opportunities, students with IEPs lose an average of 27% more academic progress than their peers, requiring 3-4 weeks longer to return to end-of-year performance levels. (source)
This is precisely why ESY exists: to maintain the momentum you've built throughout the school year and prevent that dreaded "summer slide" that can be particularly devastating for your students.
The connection to IEPs
As you know, not every student with an IEP qualifies for ESY. The determination is made based on several factors, including evidence that the student has significantly regressed during previous breaks and taken an unusually long time to recoup their learning after returning to school. In other words, they have specific goals that require maintenance—which is where your role becomes crucial.
Why data matters
We know, we know: Data isn’t the most exciting part of teaching. But during ESY, your documentation becomes extraordinarily valuable for several reasons:
It guides your instruction
Quality data helps you:
Pinpoint exactly which skills need the most attention
Track whether your interventions are effective
Make timely adjustments when strategies aren't working
Celebrate genuine progress with families
Without regular data collection, ESY can lack direction. With it, you have a roadmap for every student.
It supports future planning
The data you collect during ESY provides critical information for:
The receiving teacher in the fall
IEP development for the coming year
Decisions about future ESY eligibility
Evidence of what teaching strategies work best for each student
Those few weeks of summer documentation can influence educational decisions for months to come.
It justifies the value of ESY
ESY programs require significant resources, and districts are always looking for areas to reduce costs. When you collect meaningful data, you're not just helping your current students—you're helping ensure that quality programming will be available for students in the future.
Making data collection manageable
Data collection doesn't have to be overwhelming, and ESY is the perfect opportunity to try a new system that you can continue in the fall if it works for you.
Focus on priority goals: Concentrate on the specific IEP objectives identified for ESY maintenance rather than trying to track everything.
Work backwards: Create benchmarks that track progress towards those goals so you can see growth throughout the summer rather than trying to measure it all at the end.
Schedule it consistently: Block out specific times for assessment so it becomes routine rather than an afterthought.
Use multiple formats: Mix data from formal assessments with anecdotal notes to create a comprehensive picture of each student's performance.
Remember, even brief but consistent documentation is more valuable than elaborate systems that are too cumbersome to maintain.
Your impact lasts beyond summer
As you plan for ESY, remember that your work during these summer weeks reverberates throughout the entire educational experience of your students. By preventing regression and carefully documenting student performance, you're building bridges between school years that help students maintain continuous progress.
At Mela Mela, we’re working with special education teachers and paraprofessionals to simplify data collection. Click here to check out our ESY Pilot and contact us to learn more about how you can participate.