General Education Homebound Instruction

The purpose of homebound instruction is to provide students with academic instruction at home or hospital bedside, during a temporary period of absence, in order that they can re-engage successfully at their home campus when they return to their home campus. Homebound instruction cannot replicate, and is not intended to replicate, what a student receives in their classroom setting. The goal of the homebound program is to facilitate the student’s return to the classroom as soon as possible.

Eligibility for Homebound Instruction:

Students who are too ill to attend school due to a medical or psychiatric condition that may last four weeks or longer. Their licensed physician or psychiatrist must document the need for homebound through a diagnosis in order for homebound to be approved. Symptoms alone do not qualify a student for homebound.

Restrictions While on Homebound

While on homebound, students may not participate in or attend extra-curricular activities without written permission from their principal and a release from the doctor who placed them on homebound.  They cannot work or earn hours in Career or Technology classes. The expectation of Denton ISD is that a homebound student is confined to their home during school hours and that time should be spent in academic related activities. The student’s home becomes their learning environment. Four hours a week of face to face instruction means that 90% of assignments must be completed independently of the homebound instructor.

While we cannot monitor activities after school hours, evenings, weekends, and school breaks, a student on homebound might be terminated if they are able to be active and involved in social, church, and family activities outside the home, but remain unable to attend school.

Homebound Hours

Homebound instructors see their students one hour a day, four days a week and that provides the student with five (5) days of attendance. If a student must miss a day, the teacher will attempt to make up that hour at the end of the week. Most absences are excused, due to the illness and doctor appointments. However, students who do not participate in their homebound instruction, are not prepared when the teacher arrives, etc. will receive an unexcused absence for that day. Three unexcused absences can be reason to terminate the homebound instruction.

What Homebound Cannot Do

Homebound Instruction is not a remediation program and is not designed to provide students with time to make up previously missed assignments. It is our expectation that the family and the campus have worked together to minimize academic work missed due to absences prior to the initiation of homebound services. There is not enough time to catch a student up and also move forward with new assignments. Homebound provides instruction in Core and elective classes as long as the student is passing those classes at the time homebound instruction begins.

Students in high school, who are taking classes in Odyssey Ware and or enrolled in Night School, will not be provided instruction in those classes while receiving homebound services.

While the homebound instructor will do all that she can to insure the student’s success while on homebound, the student and the parent should remain in communication with the student’s teacher or teachers. Parents are asked to be responsible for making sure assignments are completed and the student is engaged in his or her school work as much as physically possible.

Accommodations

While a student is on traditional homebound, we request that his or her teachers shorten assignments, eliminate repetitive work, and allow for open book or parent proctored tests. Some assignments or projects cannot be done at home, and finding an alternative for those is requested.

It is the expectation of the homebound program and the student’s home campus, that teachers provide assignments to students in good standing, in a timely manner. The failure of a teacher to provide assignments for a student on homebound will be documented by the homebound instructor and reported to the campus administrator. It should not be held against a student.

Instruction is not provided in classes that the student is unable to earn credit in. The focus is on those classes that the student is passing.

Remember that the student remains enrolled on their home campus and the homebound instructor acts as a liaison between the campus and the home. The homebound instructor does not prepare assignments or do any grading.

Students on homebound can go to the campus for tutoring before and after school, and they can contact their campus teacher for instructions or questions and concerns.

AP and enhanced classes are very difficult to maintain over long periods of time, for homebound students, due to the rigor and expectation of the class.

Homebound instructors are certified teachers and highly qualified, but in most instances they are providing instruction in classes that are not in their field of certification. For that reason, it is our expectation that students remain in contact with their classroom instructors, call them with questions, and attend tutoring sessions when possible. Parents must remain involved and active in their child’s education while on homebound.

STAAR Testing

Whenever possible, we request that students are released by their physicians to come to school for testing. If a student is too ill to test, they receive an excused absence for that testing day. If they test, they receive one (1) hour of instruction for that day.

The homebound instructor cannot provide instruction, on testing dates, for students unable to test at home or at school.

For further information, please contact Lesli Guajardo at 940-369-0585 or the student's academic counselor.