Home instruction (sometimes called “home/hospital”) is an educational program option available to students with disabilities who cannot be educated in a public school setting. Typically, students in this placement have significant health needs or significant behavioral challenges and have struggled to attend school in a public school behavioral class, non-public school or mental health setting.
Any home instruction program must be individually designed to ensure that progress toward goals and objectives continues, even if the program is being provided at the student’s home. The law also requires that students have access to — and make progress in — the general education curriculum. [1] All the same procedures must be followed by the IEP team in developing an IEP for a student to be instructed at home as are followed for any other special education student. [2]
For a student with an IEP, services are determined by the IEP team including the type, length and amount of instructional services. This is different from the home- or hospital-based instruction that a student with a temporary disability, (who is not a Section 504 or special education student) may receive, where one hour per day is permissible. See Q. 1 above.
For the special education student, an arbitrary limit of one hour per day of home instruction, without individualized assessment and a determination that such a limit will result in educational benefit, is not designed to meet that student’s unique needs. Educational benefit means progress toward the central IEP goals and objectives. [3] If the district insists on a limit of one hour per day and you disagree, a parent/guardian/other education rights holder may file a compliance complaint or file for due process. See Chapter 6, Information on Due Process/Compliance Procedures.