SPECIAL EDition — Winter 2002

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Questions We're Asked

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Q: I am a case worker whose caseload is mostly children with significant disabilities and their families. Two of the families I work with have children who are not currently able to attend public school and are getting "homebound" services from the school district. Someone comes from the school to their house for one hour a day on Monday through Thursday. There are no services from the school on Friday. When the teacher is absent (which happens a lot), no one comes and the time is never made up. The parents and I agree that these children need more than one hour a day. They are also concerned about the absences. The district has told them this is all they are required to provide. Is that true?

A: No. Within two weeks of receiving your inquiry, I received a similar one from foster parents in another part of the state who have taken in a child who was previously in an institution. They are having the same problem. Though Advocacy, Inc. has addressed this issue previously, it must be time to do it again.

What the district you are describing seems to be doing is determining the amount of time it is providing homebound services based on the amount of time it must provide in order to generate special education funding. When this happens, the parent is typically told this is "all we have to provide" or "this is all we can provide." What they mean is, "this is all we have to provide to get funding." The amount of service provided to the child, however, must be the amount of educational services from which the child can benefit, even it exceeds the amount for which the district receives state funds. The district must use local or other funds to meet the needs of the child.

Have the family to request an ARD meeting to review the amount of services being provided their child. The decision must be made based on the needs of the child and the reasons should be documented on the child's IEP. Hopefully, the child's doctor will have included in his/her report information about how many hours a day would be appropriate for the child based on his physical condition.

As for your other question, the Office for Civil Rights has ruled in the past that, if a district provides substitute teachers in its regular program, it must also provide them in the homebound program. Time missed should be made up if a substitute is not available. Parents should document the missed time.

SPECIAL EDition, Winter 2002