The school year is drawing to a close and summer is around the corner. Summer brings fun thoughts, but it can bring also bring on a sense of dread for parents who have children with autism spectrum disorders and other disabilities: How many weeks will my daughter be in summer school? What our we going to do with all our downtime? How am I going to be able to program for her at home? How will my son have opportunities to socialize with peers?
These are some of the comments I routinely hear from parents who know the absense of the school year routine can throw their child for a loop - because autism and many other disabilities don't take a summer vacation.
These are some of the comments I routinely hear from parents who know the absense of the school year routine can throw their child for a loop - because autism and many other disabilities don't take a summer vacation.
As a special education advocate, I am in the midst of IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting season. I've gotten quite used to the fact that summer programming discussions prompted by the school district usually start like this, "our summer school runs for the month of July," or something along these lines. As well intentioned as these predetermined summer programs are, let me remind you that, if your child is eligible to extended year services (I'll get to eligibility in a moment), then your child's summer services can be individualized.
About eligibility for summer programming. It's not unusual to hear the IEP school team say that your child doesn't meet the criteria for summer school. It's also not unusal to hear school staff tell parents that they can only offer summer programming to those kids who can be proven to regress over the summer. Yes, regression is one of the criteria, it is not, however, the only criteria. I can't tell you how many parents I have worked with whose child has gone years without summer programming only to find out, once they learned about the full criteria, that they actually would have qualified.
If getting appropriate extended school year services is a concern for you, you would be well served to research your state's standards and policies about extended school year services. Call your state's department of special education and print out their standards and policies. This way, you will have the knowledge you need to have a well balanced discussion about whether your child meets the criteria or not.
