District describes Extended School Year program: 34 qualified, 28 initially attending

The Sierra Vista Unified District governing board received a presentation on its Extended School Year (ESY) program during the June 17 meeting.

Cassie Di Piazza, the district's IEP coordinator and ESY coordinator, told the board ESY ran June 2'June 26 this year at Town and Country Elementary School. "ESY stands for extended school year services," Di Piazza said, and she emphasized that ESY is an individualized, data-driven special-education service, not tutoring or child care.

Di Piazza said 65 students were considered for ESY, 34 qualified under the district's criteria (significant regression, recoupment time and predictive data), and 28 families initially accepted services; at the time of the presentation 26 students were attending, with one family withdrawing and one student moving. ESY provided four hours a day, Monday through Thursday, from 8 a.m. to noon, and did not operate on Juneteenth.

Program staffing included four certified special-education teachers (noted as updated from an earlier parent presentation), four paraprofessionals, two registered behavioral technicians, a behavioral specialist, an occupational therapy assistant, speech-language pathologist assistant, supervising OT and SLP, and contracted nursing consults. Di Piazza noted staff had CPR, first-aid and de-escalation training and that several staff have experience with medically fragile students; two participating students required G-tube nutrition.

Instruction focused on specially designed instruction tied to students' IEP goals across academics, OT, speech, social skills and daily living skills (toileting, feeding, dressing). Di Piazza said the ESY program supported more than 150 IEP goals during the session and included weekly STEM and sensory activities adapted to students' needs.

No board action was required; the presentation was informational and the ESY coordinator encouraged families to use data-based IEP decisions when considering ESY.