(From a press release)
Every summer, for five weeks, the Bucks County Intermediate Unit (Bucks IU) builds what amounts to a small school district, and it’s just for students with special needs.
The Bucks IU’s Extended School Year (ESY) program supports between 1,000 and 1,150 students annually, ages kindergarten through 22, from across the Bucks County region. The goal? To help students hold onto the progress they’ve made during the school year, even during the long summer break.
“Helping students with special needs maintain their behaviors, social skills, knowledge, and hard-won abilities over the summer is so important to their continued development,” said Dr. Lenny Greaney, Bucks IU assistant to the executive director. “When teachers don’t need to spend time reteaching skills in the fall, they can jump right into helping students grow in new ways.”
This summer, the ESY program brought together a team of more than 540 staff members across six county-wide locations, serving over 1,100 students from eleven school districts. As an amazing team, the ESY group delivered more than 2,300 services over the five weeks of the program.
Kelly Housman, ESY program coordinator, has led the Bucks IU program for the past 12 years.
“Over the years, our students’ needs have become more complex,” she said. “That cmeans more one-on-one support, more related services, and more staff to help them stay on track with their educational goals.”
One thing that sets the Bucks IU’s program apart is the schedule. While many ESY programs run for half days or just three to four weeks, the Bucks IU’s ESY offers four full school days each week for five weeks.
“We believe a full-day program, four days a week, gives students a schedule that feels familiar and similar to the school year,” said Dr. Mark Hoffman, Bucks IU Executive Director. “Our program’s structure helps provide consistency and gives our team time to work closely with each student every day.”
Eligibility for ESY is decided at a student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting and is based on data from previous breaks in service that show whether a student is likely to lose skills and struggle to regain them. Also considered are how essential specific skills are to the student being able to meet their IEP goal levels related to independence and self-sufficiency.
ESY isn’t just valuable for students, it’s also a great opportunity for staff. Many current IU team members first got their start with the organization in ESY. The experience offers a chance to see what it’s like to work with students with special needs and to explore careers in special education, occupational or physical therapy, speech-language pathology, or other roles. It also shows what it’s like to work for an intermediate unit.
Pauline Edbrooke, Administrative Assistant for ESY, and Kelly Housman both shared how much goes into organizing, staffing, and running the program. In the end, they both agreed that it’s worth it.
“Hearing from teachers and related service providers that they didn’t have to backtrack at the beginning of the school year and could instead dive right into helping their students advance and grow is the best reward,” said Housman.