Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) Special Education Procedural Requirements and Program Standards, Section 19.00, includes criteria and guidelines for the provision and payment of Extended School Year (ESY) services to students with disabilities. During the special education budget workshop conducted in September 2007, school districts were informed that revisions would be made regarding future ESY payments. Prior to the 2007-2008 school year, two ESY payments were made each year. Part I covered ESY services from the end of the school year through June 30, and Part II covered ESY services from July 1 through the start of the new school year. ESY-Part I claims required school districts to estimate the number of days that students would be served through June 30. Then, the ADE provided funding at the end of the school year based on this information. If some of the anticipated services were not provided, the district was then expected to reimburse the ADE after July 1 for days of service that were not provided. To eliminate this practice, future ESY reimbursement requests will be submitted only one time each year in August or September for actual days served after the ESY service has been completed.
The payment for the ESY services during the summer 2008 will be $74 per student per day, calculated on the basis of the allocation methodology described in Section 19.00. Payment requests for ESY services must be filed on the Arkansas Department of Education, Special Education Web site, http://arksped.k12.ar.us, between August 11, 2008, and September 12, 2008. This secure filing site is accessed under the Finance link after logging in to MySped Resource. A User’s Guide for submitting ESY reimbursement claims will also be available on August 11, under the MySped Resource Support link.