CORRECTION: General Education Homebound Updates

This TAA is intended to replace the TAA issued on August 13, 2021. Changes include corrections to erroneously listed waiver requirements and include information on additional homebound obligations. 

Overview 

General Education Homebound may be provided for a student at home or hospital bedside and must be provided by a certified general education teacher. Over the period of his or her confinement, the student must be provided instruction in all core academic subject area courses in which the student is enrolled. In addition, over the period of confinement, the student should be provided instruction in all other courses the student is enrolled in, if possible. 

This option is available through the General Education Homebound (GEH) and Compensatory Education Home Instruction (CEHI) program. In order to be eligible for funding, all requirements of the GEH or CEHI program must be met. See 3.7 General Education Homebound (GEH) Program of the Student Attendance Accounting Handbook (SAAH) for GEH program requirements. See Section 9 Pregnancy-Related Services (PRS) of the SAAH for CEHI program requirements. 

This document provides guidance and updates on how LEAs implement general education homebound instruction, as well as information on how TEA will assess compliance with homebound requirements. Additionally, TEA will be proposing some updates to the Student Attendance Accounting Handbook of relevance to homebound instruction, the relevant portions of which are noted here. 

Certain SAAH To-Be-Proposed Language: 

3.7 General Education Homebound (GEH) Program 

Any student who is served through the GEH program must meet the following three criteria: 

• The student is expected to be confined at home or hospital bedside for a minimum of four weeks. The weeks need not be consecutive. 
• The student is confined at home or hospital bedside for medical reasons only. 
• The student must have a current medical condition that is documented by a physician licensed to practice in the United States. The student must have a current medical condition that is documented by a physician licensed to practice in the United States. Except in cases of medically fragile students, potential medical conditions or concerns that students may develop medical conditions do not constitute grounds for GEH program eligibility. 

A student served through the GEH program at home or hospital bedside must be served by a certified general education teacher. Over the period of his or her confinement, the student must be provided instruction in all core academic subject area courses in which the student is enrolled. In addition, over the period of confinement, the student should be provided instruction in all other courses the student is enrolled in, if possible. In cases where students are medically able to receive more than the required minimum four hours of face to face instruction, LEAs must provide additional remote instruction. Please note, concurrent instruction is not allowed. 

Requirements for General Education Homebound Instruction 

Key requirements for homebound instruction are: 

• The student is confined at home or hospital bedside for medical reasons only. Note: except in cases of medically fragile students, potential medical conditions or concerns that students may develop medical conditions do not constitute grounds for GEH program eligibility. 
• The student’s medical condition is documented by a physician licensed to practice in the United States.
  • The physician’s note must also document that the student is expected to be confined at home or in a hospital bed for a minimum of four weeks. The weeks need not be consecutive. 
• Students must receive four hours of face-to-face instruction on a weekly basis.
  • In cases where students are medically able to receive more than the required minimum four hours of face to face instruction, LEAs must provide additional remote instruction. Please note, concurrent instruction is not allowed. 

General Education Homebound Audit and Reporting 

If your LEA provides homebound instruction to an eligible regular education student, your LEA may count the student in attendance for Foundation School Program (FSP) funding purposes provided that all requirements of the homebound program are met. 

The documentation used to determine the student’s need for homebound services must be maintained for audit purposes. 

For LEAs, a new data element, GENERAL-EDUCATION-HOMEBOUND-INDICATOR, will be reported in the PEIMS Summer submission to indicate if a student was served at any time in the GEH program during the current school year. 

TEA’s Financial Compliance Division will be reviewing the submission data for the GEH data element and performing audits on those LEAs that have reported excessive numbers of students who have been coded with the GEH data element. LEAs are responsible for ensuring that students are properly qualified to participate in the GEH program and are required to maintain documentation to support student placement, as detailed in the SAAH. 

Additional Options 

Note that for students with eligible temporary medical conditions, remote conferencing is another option available and can be utilized to provide short-term remote instruction. Please visit this FAQ for more information. 

Remote Homebound instruction is another limited option available for students in extremely severe medical circumstances when face-to-face instruction is not possible. LEAs must seek a waiver and meet all General Education Homebound requirements listed above. It is likely that only a small fraction of students of a local educational agency (LEA) would be eligible for remote homebound instruction. Please review section 12.3.3 of the SAAH. 

If you have questions, please reach out to attendance@tea.texas.gov.