My child’s doctor recommended homebound instruction. The school said they had the authority to override that recommendation. Why won’t the school provide homebound services?
Issues of homebound are determined in part by state law and state regulations, if any, on the subject.
IDEA 2004 and the federal regulations provide no guidance on this issue.
However, if your child has an IEP, the IEP controls the services, regardless of where they are delivered – at home or in the public school.
The IEP team determines what the child requires in order to receive FAPE, i.e., a free appropriate public education.
Placing a child on homebound is a very restrictive placement.
As a general rule, a homebound placement is only appropriate if a child has a health or medical problem that prevents the child from attending school.
Homebound Placement for Behavior Issues
We are seeing many cases where the school/IEP team places a child with behavior problems in “homebound” for weeks or months because they don’t know how to handle the child’s behavior.
In a nutshell, the school removes the child from school. The child may receive a couple of hours of instruction a week and no contact with other kids.
In these instances, the school needs to do a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) and design a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) as soon as possible.
Documentation: The parent who has documented the problems and their attempts to solve them, will be in a stronger position to request an IEP team meeting and an IEP that addresses the problem behaviors.
Homebound Services for Medical Issues
If a child has a medical condition that requires homebound instruction, the doctor needs to document this in detail.
- what is the condition?
- what will the child need?
- how long will the child need this service?
Documentation: The parent needs to document the child’s problems, what caused them to worsen, attempts made to help the child, etc.
Tags: FAPE · homebound instruction · Homebound Services · IEPs6 Comments
6 responses so far ↓
my daughter is currently on homebound services through the school. The administration comes off as quite the bullies when it comes to continuing the services rendered. It is still unknown to us what the cause of her illness is stemming from. We are still having tests run to find out. the special ed director stated that they are only allowed to give the students these services one time. They cant have these services again if such a situation rendered it. Is this true? is there a limitation to the usage of these types of services in the state of Idaho
My son has dr. Recomended homebound but iep team is wanting to override it because the first paper was unclear and I didn’t want to get in trouble 4 him not being in school. I let him go one day they said he did fine. I was there and I heard him being loud in his iep class and saw the frustration on her face, so I know that was a lie. then I went and sat in the truck all day and went to rest room one time and they stopped me saying he was fine. He has meltdowns, cries uncontrollably, hits himself, hits me, his dad, when angry curses, acts on impulse. the dr he has now has him listed as autistic disorders and says we need to get him stabilized. What do I do? I am going to homeschool him. asap
My 17 year old daughter has a 504 plan for a learning disability in reading comprehension. She is now 19 weeks pregnant and has had horrible nausea and vomiting. The doctor has had her on homebound from August to November 7. She takes Zofran daily and many times it does not work, so she has to take Phenergan. The Phenergan makes her very sleepy and drowsy, thus not able to concentrate. She becomes nauseated and vomits at the slightest smell. She cannot even walk into many places because of the smells. The doctor says that she can return to school and refuses to extend her homebound. She has been completing all of the assignments that the teachers reluctantly provide. She is horrified at returning to the school environment because she doesn’t want to throw up there. She has been to the hospital b/c of dehydration for this. What can I do?
Can we request homebound instruction and go to school on a limited basis for a medically fragile child? So half a day at school half a day at home.
I am interesting in finding out what can be done with my grandson. He is very special need, to the pt that he is just above a vegatated state, my daughter has been threatened with truancy… there has to be something in place for these kids.
Had similar issue w/my daughters 1)school couldn’t find placement so due to behavioral health we used homebound instruction. School never followed IEP and now SOL prevents us from corrective actions.
2nd child was due to complex medical and 6wk hospitalization. Never received the homebound instruction and are now pursuing it. Its my experience some schools feel they send a tutor home they’re all set. Others, if the child is in and out regularly, leave it to the child to catch up. For my med complex kid, caused more emotional harm that we’re still dealing with today.