Home & Hospital Services, also known as Home/Hospital or Homebound Services, are designed to provide educational services to students who are unable to attend school due to medical or mental health issues. These services ensure that students receive the education they need, even when they cannot physically attend school.
What are Home & Hospital Services?
Home & Hospital Services are a type of specialized education service that provides instruction to students who are unable to attend school for an extended (or sometimes intermittent) period of time. This program is designed for students with medical or mental health conditions that make it difficult or impossible for them to attend school. The purpose of this is to ensure that these students receive educational services that are consistent with their individualized education plans (IEPs).
Homebound services are essential for ensuring that all students have access to their education, regardless of their health conditions. These services are designed to provide students with the instruction and support they need to stay on track with their academic goals and maintain their educational progress. Students should be provided with access to curriculum materials, individualized instruction, and support from qualified teachers and educational professionals.
Homebound services in education help to ensure that students do not fall behind in their studies while they are recovering from an illness or injury. This can be especially important for students who are facing extended periods of absence from school, as it can help them to avoid falling behind and struggling to catch up later.
How do Home & Hospital Services work?
Typically these services may include tutoring, instructional support, and related services such as occupational therapy or speech therapy. Students in Maryland are assigned a Home and Hospital instructor, who is a certified educator. That person will work with the student in the child’s home, in a public location, or possibly in the hospital. The teacher will not work with the student for a full school day– instead, a plan will be developed taking the child’s needs into account to schedule instruction.
One myth about Home and Hospital services is that students can receive a maximum of six hours per week. While six hours is a common amount of time school systems assign there is no reason there cannot be more than six hours assigned.
How do you get approval for Home and Hospital services?
In order to be eligible for this service, students must be unable to attend school for a medical or mental health reason, and the request for the service must be signed by a doctor (or psychologist). Request the specific form your district uses, and have your doctor fill it out. For a physical medical condition this should be the child’s treating physician. For a mental health condition, this should be the psychologist or psychiatrist. New legislation will soon allow a mental health nurse-practitioner to sign as well. Additionally, school psychologists can sign for Home and Hospital services for mental health conditions.
This blog post is for informational purposes only. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship.