Epic Notes — Special Education Boss®

Early Pickups Are Days Out of Placement. And Yes, Every District Provides ESY.

By Karen Mayer Cunningham, Special Education Boss®

Founder · Special Education Academy™ · The Epic IEP™ · June 11, 2026

Summer is when the numbers go down and the access goes up. In this week's live Q&A, recorded June 9, 2026, Karen took questions from parents, advocates, paras, and educators, and cleared up the confusion we hear all year long.

Here are the quick answers up front, because that is how we do it here: every school district provides Extended School Year services. Early pickup calls are days out of placement. A district is never required to implement an IEE. And if your request is not in writing, it never happened.

Now let's break each one down, because you don't know what you don't know — but you need to.

Why Is Summer the Best Time to Take Action on Your Child's IEP?

Because what was not resolved last year is not a maturity issue, and it will not fix itself by August. If concerns were never clarified, addressed, or handled during the school year, summer is when you go back into your documents and make sure you did not miss anything.

This is the season to file a robust state complaint, meet with leadership about how next year can be different, and request evaluations in writing so the legal timeline starts before the building opens. We all think we are going to have a great big break, and then it is July 31st at midnight and the break is gone. Use it.

Do Early Pickups Count Against My Child?

Yes. When the school calls you to pick up your child early, that is a day out of placement. That is a legal decision the school is making, whether they frame it that way or not. The district has an obligation to deliver the instructional day. As Karen put it: we are not picking people up. We are not Uber.

There is a second problem with the pick-up-your-kid program: it teaches an if-then that benefits no one. If I act like this, then my mom comes and gets me. Supports exist for exactly this reason.

Does Every School District Provide ESY?

Yes. Extended School Year services are required under federal and state law. If a district told you they do not provide ESY, that is simply not true. The real question is whether your child qualifies, and that comes down to educational need.

The first qualifying reason you will hear about at school is documented regression with a profound amount of time to recoup the skill. The second is concern for loss of critical skills, the gains your child worked hard for that the team does not want to see slip. ESY is for stopping regression and maintaining skills, not for improving a skill.

How Do I Prove Regression for ESY?

With the district's own data. If your child regresses after every summer, the school's data already captured it. And here is the part that protects you: a district needs data to support granting ESY, and it needs data to support denying ESY. If the district does not possess or provide data, a hearing officer, appellate officer, or federal attorney will treat it as if it did not occur.

Is the School Required to Provide ESY Transportation?

Transportation runs to the address of record, not wherever your child happens to be staying that week. The district does not run around town checking whether Billy is at Uncle Jody's. But a blanket policy like "we only provide ESY transportation to families with no other way to get there" is not how this works either. If transportation is a documented need, it is minutes, and minutes belong in the IEP.

Is the School Required to Implement an IEE?

No. An Independent Educational Evaluation is like a scratch-off ticket. You can get one, but it is unlikely you are going home with a million dollars. There is zero responsibility, duty, or obligation for a school district to implement a single thing in an IEE. No period, no apostrophe, no semicolon.

Where IEEs help: removing an eligibility that is wrong, like a student who is blind being given sight-based cognitive tests. Where they rarely help: getting things added. And an IEE can take six to twelve months to arrive.

When Does a School Have to Convene an IEP Meeting?

For two things: eligibility and minutes. Adding or removing an eligibility requires a meeting. So does anything that touches minutes: adding service minutes, reducing them, ESY, a transportation supplement, new support in a class, or removing support.

Almost everything else can be handled by a paper amendment, an IEP supplement done by agreement with the parent. So if you have had four IEP meetings this year, that is not unusual. You would have four meetings to buy a house. The goal is not fewer meetings. The goal is showing up prepared. This is why we sit at the table prepared.

What Should I Ask For First With ADHD: Accommodations or Services?

Services. An accommodation changes how a student learns. A modification changes what a student learns. And when accommodations get layered on top of each other endlessly, you eventually end up with a modification nobody agreed to.

Special education has one job: teach children strategies to self-manage their disability, and that happens through goals and service minutes. Accommodations get added when we know that without them, the student will fail on IEP goals. Start with services. Add accommodations with purpose, not by the pound.

My Child "Mastered" Her Reading Goal. Can the School Take It Away?

Slow down, because a reading goal and a dyslexia curriculum are two different things. There are four areas of reading that can be identified as specific learning disabilities: dyslexia (phonemic awareness and decoding), basic reading, fluency, and reading comprehension. A student can finish an Orton-Gillingham curriculum, and for those kiddos we move to maintenance. You never graduate from dyslexia.

Before the team removes anything, go back to the evaluation and check whether all nine SLD areas were tested. The odds are they were not. Ask the team to put a pin in it and look at new evaluations first. Almost always, they will.

How Do I Get My Child's Data From the School?

In writing, every time. Ask for data as often as you need it to meaningfully participate. If the campus will not respond, email the special education director: "I continue to struggle with the campus to provide me data related to my child's IEP. Is that something you can help me with?" Leaders want to lead. Ask them.

If the district still will not provide it, file a state complaint under 34 CFR 300.613 for denying access to your student's educational records. Records are anything used, kept, or maintained that relates to your child's name, ID number, or programming. After your student exits special education, you generally have about five years, longer in some states, to request that those records be surrendered to you before they are destroyed.

What Is the Zack Pack?

When you show up to a new school year, bring the Zack Pack: a picture of your kiddo and a one-sheet with his strengths, struggles, interests, what worked last year, and your contact information. Then hand a full printout of the IEP to every teacher who serves your child, including PE, music, and art.

Teachers may check a box saying they have access to the IEP, but as Karen says: I have access to a gym, and I do not go in one. Kids are never paperwork. Put the document in human hands, and the IEP gets implemented with fidelity.

Houston ISD Families: Press Conference June 17

Karen announced a press conference on Wednesday, June 17, 2026 at 6:00 PM at Bellaire High School regarding Houston ISD's plan to consolidate self-contained programs onto a single campus. There is a word for moving every self-contained student to one building, and that word is segregation.

Families affected by similar moves anywhere in the country should file a state complaint stating that their child is being segregated and discriminated against based on disability. If you have information to share, you are welcome to attend, or send a letter and keep your name and your child's name out of it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Train With Us This Summer

Summer is the best time to get personalized attention, because the numbers are down and the access is up. Here is where to plug in:

Parents, caregivers, and advocates: Join Special Education Academy, free for your first month, with live training every Monday at 8:00 PM Central, or learn on your schedule with the on-demand advocacy courses.

Anyone at the IEP or 504 table: The next live virtual 2-Day Special Education Advocacy Intensive is August 22–23, 2026. If you need this before Labor Day, that is your window.

School-based educators: The Epic Educator Academy™ meets live every Monday at 7:00 PM Central, built to honor, raise up, and equip the people in the building. $27/month, cancel anytime.

ESY · Extended School Year · IEE · IEP Data · Early Pickup · State Complaint · 34 CFR 300.613 · Transition Planning