Homebound Services
The purpose of Homebound Instructional Services is to provide K-12 students who are unable to attend classes at a school building for health or other reasons or conditions, with educational services which will allow the students to maintain academic progress and to facilitate a successful transition back to school as quickly as possible. Homebound Instructional Services are educational services provided to a student in the home or other non-school building site.
It is expected that homebound instructional services will be short-term and unless there are exceptional circumstances homebound services shall not exceed 171 school days, i.e. the normal school year. While a student is receiving homebound instructional services, that student remains enrolled in and the responsibility of the school site the student attended immediately before receiving homebound services.
Students who are assigned to homebound teaching as an alternative education program shall not be in or on any Dallas County School System property without the expressed permission of the administrator in charge of the building or property.
Homebound services shall not be provided for those students who are frequently truant or nonattenders.
There shall be an adult over the age of 21 present in the home during the entire period of homebound instruction. If the student will not be available to receive a lesson, the parent shall notify the homebound teacher in advance.
The Homebound teacher shall be provided with all books, supplies and lesson objectives needed for a student’s instruction. The homebound teacher periodically shall report the student’s grades and attendance to the school of record. Grades shall not be given at the secondary level for students who do not return books to the homebound teacher at the end of the homebound instruction.
DALLAS COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS
HOMEBOUND POLICY
I. PURPOSE
The purpose of this policy is to provide information to the Dallas County Schools employees regarding the instructional guidelines and parameters of homebound instruction.
II. GENERAL STATEMENT OF POLICY
The Dallas County School System’s curriculum centers instructional practices on challenging and supporting all students in the pursuit of their highest academic and personal achievement. The system shall provide teachers and staff with a framework for ensuring that students receive educational instruction to progress in their individual curriculum.
The system must provide regular education, special education, or both, to a pupil in grades kindergarten through twelfth grade, when students are prevented from attending their regular school for extended periods of time, due to care and treatment. If a student is unable to attend regular classes at the normal school site because of illness, and or injury, the student can be defined as a homebound student. To ensure that the student continues to make educational progress in their individual curriculum, a licensed instructor provides homebound instruction as soon as practicable under
treatment conditions of these students.
III. DEFINITIONS
Homebound: The student is prevented from attending the student’s normal educational site, and is in need of alternative educational instruction.
Instruction: a teacher-led process, which transforms well planned curriculum into student learning. Instruction is standards-focused teaching for the purpose of providing meaningful learning experiences that enables students to master academic content and meet graduation requirements.
IV. ELIGIBILITY OF HOMEBOUND INSTRUCTION
Any students enrolled in a Dallas County Public Schools are eligible for homebound instruction. Eligibility for homebound instruction shall include children with disabilities, injuries, and or conditions that prevent the individual from attending school for an extended period of time.
Education services must be provided to a regular education student who is:
absent/prevented from attending for 15 consecutive days;
predicted to be absent for 15 consecutive days according to the placing authority, such as a medical doctor, psychologist, psychiatrist, judge, or other court-appointed authority; or
health-impaired and in need of special education and predicted by the team to be absent from the normal school site for 15 intermittent school days, education services must be provided by the System.
A pupil or regular education student shall begin receiving homebound instruction as soon as is practicable under treatment conditions to ensure that the student continues to make educational progress.
Students receiving homebound instruction will be eligible for credit toward graduation, contingent on satisfactory completion of assignments, as determined by the instructors and/or the building principal.
5