Pregnancy Related Services

Pregnancy Related Services are support services, including Compensatory Education Home Instruction (CEHI), that a pregnant student receives during the pregnancy prenatal and postpartum periods. Districts may choose whether to offer a PRS program. If a district chooses to offer a PRS program, it must offer CEHI services as part of that program, as they are mandatory. The programs are designed to help students adjust academically, mentally, and physically and stay in school. These services are delivered to a student when:

• the student is pregnant and attending classes on a district campus;
• the pregnancy prenatal period prevents the student from attending classes on a district campus; and
• the pregnancy postpartum period prevents the student from attending classes on a district campus.

Texas Education Code §29.081(d) identifies a student at risk of dropping out of school if the student is pregnant or is a parent. See the rules for operation of a PRS program in the Texas Administrative Code (TAC) Section 129.1025, or on the Student Attendance Accounting Handbook page on the TEA website.

The district may choose to offer both support services components and the CEHI component or only the CEHI component in a PRS program. However, your district may not code any student as PRS in the attendance accounting system unless CEHI is included as one of the services provided by the district’s PRS program.

A district receives 2.41 PRS weighted funding while PRS components are provided to the student during the prenatal or postpartum periods. To claim PRS eligible days present for weighted funding, documentation must be maintained by responsible campus officials, medical or nurse practitioners, and maintaining certified teacher logs (Section 7).

Compensatory Education Home Instruction

CEHI is the mandatory support service component districts offer in a PRS program. CEHI provides academic services to the student at home or hospital bedside when a valid medical necessity for confinement during the pregnancy prenatal or postpartum periods prevents the student from attending classes on a district campus. CEHI must consist of face-to-face contact with a certified teacher of the district providing academic services to the student.

Substitutes can be used to provide CEHI; however, the individual selected as the substitute must be a certified teacher. The certified teacher maintains a log to document the actual amount of prenatal and postpartum PRS CEHI each student receives. When students are provided CEHI, your district continues to receive the 2.41 PRS weighted funding (i.e., district personnel should continue to code students in the attendance accounting system as receiving PRS while providing PRS components). Students who do not come to school and who do not receive CEHI or Special Education (SPED) homebound must be counted absent in accordance with the charts provided in this Chapter.

Districts may not code students as PRS in the attendance accounting system to receive 2.41 PRS weighted funding unless CEHI is included as one of the service components provided by the district’s PRS program.

Support Services

Support services are the optional components of a PRS program that may be provided to the student during the prenatal period of the pregnancy while the student is pregnant and attending school. In addition, support services may be provided during the prenatal or postpartum periods of pregnancy while the student is confined at home or hospital bedside for a valid medical necessity or recovering from delivery and being served with PRS CEHI. In all cases, support services are provided to support the student and should not interfere with the academic services while she is on the school campus or receiving CEHI at home or hospital bedside. Districts offering support services with CEHI may code students as PRS in the attendance accounting system to receive the 2.41 PRS weighted funding beginning on the date support services are provided to pregnant students. Examples of support services that a district may choose to offer are:

1. counseling services including the initial session when the student discloses the pregnancy;
2. health services including services from the school nurse and certified athletic trainer;
3. transportation for the student or the student’s children to school, child care facility, community service agencies, health services, etc.;
4. instruction (inside or outside the classroom) related to parenting knowledge and skills, including child development, home and family living, and appropriate job readiness training;
5. child care for the student's children;
6. schedule modifications (see 9.18 Quality Control); and
7. case management and service coordination (assistance in obtaining services from government agencies and community service organizations).

Pregnancy Related Services Rules

You can find the PRS rules in the Student Accounting Handbook in Section 9.

Pregnancy Related Services Form Example

General State Waivers for PRS CEHI

The On-Campus PRS CEHI Waiver is a waiver of the Texas Administrative Code (TAC) Section 129.1025, Student Attendance Accounting Handbook, Section 9.

View the State Waiver Application. 

For assistance regarding the waiver process, please contact Waivers@tea.texas.gov.

The On-Campus PRS Waiver allows PRS CEHI to be offered on campus for eligible students during their postpartum recovery period of pregnancy. Without the waiver, the services must be provided in the home or at the hospital bedside. Based on the information submitted by the district, the waiver is approved for one, two or three school years. The district must do the following:

• Provide transportation as needed;
• Serve students at home if medically indicated;
• Maintain the intent of eye-to-eye individual instruction;
• Not exceed a 4:1 student-to-teacher ratio for on campus CEHI instruction;
• Provide individual teacher instruction to students who were previously working on self-paced computer programs (this is in addition to the computer lessons during the CEHI portion of PRS);
• Obtain a doctor’s note that allows prenatal, postpartum, and extended postpartum students to return to school for CEHI as prescribed in Chapter 9.12 of the Student Attendance Handbook; and
• Evaluate the effects of this waiver in a report to their district board of trustees.

Serving Pregnant SPED Students

The current version of the Student Attendance Handbook, specifically Chapters 4, Special Education, and Chapter 9, Pregnancy Related Services, contains detailed information on attendance and serving pregnant SPED students.

View the Pregnancy Services Determination Flow Chart.