An IEP team deciding extended school year services has to weigh how much a student loses over a break and how long it takes to get it back. Most teams meet without that evidence, so ESY gets decided by habit. PULSE gathers it in about two minutes a probe, before and after each break, and puts it in front of the team.
Each line is a goal's probe score as a share of its level before the break.
Same break, different answers. Illustrative data; the 6-week window is an example of a standard a district sets.
Four steps, most of them automatic. Providers spend about two minutes a probe; PULSE does the scheduling, the reminders and the math.
Fall
The case manager picks the goals to watch. PULSE schedules a probe before and after each break: winter, spring and the first weeks back.
December to March
The provider runs the same task under the same conditions and enters the score on the web or in the PULSE app. PULSE reminds them; it never nags.
After each break
Goal by goal, PULSE shows how much was lost over the break and how long it took to come back, against the district's own recovery window.
Spring meeting
The team decides with the evidence in front of it, and can set a date to meet again when the evidence isn't in yet.
The same evidence, shaped for the provider who gathers it, the team that weighs it and the director who plans the summer.
What a speech-language pathologist sees the week before winter break. Each probe is the task she already uses for the goal, scored the way she already scores it.
After the break, the same four come back in the first and third weeks.
Student A, grade 3
Goal 2: produces /r/ in words, percent correct over 20 trials
Student B, grade 1
Goal 1: requests help with a communication device, independent requests out of 10
Student C, grade 5
Goal 3: answers inferential questions, percent correct
Student D, kindergarten
Goal 1: follows two-step directions, correct out of 10 trials
A probe takes about two minutes. Nothing else is asked of her.
What the IEP team sees for one student at the spring meeting, goal by goal.
Probes before and after winter break, measured against the district's 6-week recovery window.
What the director of special education sees across the district in March, before summer planning begins.
So support goes where teams are deciding without data.
| School | ESY recommended | With evidence | Share with evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elementary school A | 24 | 19 | |
| Elementary school B | 18 | 8 | |
| Middle school | 14 | 7 | |
| High school | 8 | 4 |
This is not a list of wrong decisions. It shows where teams are deciding without data, so the director can offer support, schedule probes before spring break and plan summer staffing on firmer ground.
PULSE never recommends, approves or denies ESY. It organizes the evidence; the team weighs it with everything else it knows about the student.
Nothing is screened by disability category. Each decision rests on that student's goals and evidence.
A district decides whether to use them and for which students. Where there are no probe data, the team's professional judgment stands, as it always has.
Under its own data agreement, readable only by the people its roles allow.
Once the team decides, the same records feed ESY planning in PULSE: programs, staffing, transportation and the end-of-summer summary of services.
About two minutes a probe, at the moments that matter, with reminders that respect a provider's week.
In Ohio, the IEP team decides on an individual basis whether extended school year services are necessary for a free appropriate public education, weighing whether they are needed to prevent significant regression and to avoid regression that is more than adequately recoupable.
Paraphrased from Ohio Administrative Code 3301-51-02(G), extended school year services. PULSE is built to follow each state's own rule.
We’re building this with early-partner districts: their goals, their recovery windows, their forms. Partners use it first, and it fits how their teams already work.
Eric Oxford, Ed.D. · Former Director of Student Services · Co-founder, PULSE