Home and Hospital Teaching services are intended to provide short-term instructional services when a student is unable to participate in their school of enrollment for 3 weeks or more due to a physical illness/injury, an emotional condition, drug or alcohol dependency/treatment, pregnancy, or the student has a chronic health impairment that may impact regular attendance at school.

Services are provided to students attending a public school, as well as, identified students with disabilities for whom the public school system has the responsibility for providing educational services. This includes students with disabilities who are attending non-public school programs that have been approved through the IEP process.

Children receiving home-based programs operated through the Office for Children and the Maryland Infants and Toddlers Program for the birth through 2-year-old population are excluded from this regulation (COMAR 13A.03.05).

Yes, if approved. Students can receive services on a part-time basis. In these instances, the student may have a modified school day where they attend their classes in person for part of the day and receive home and hospital teaching services for the course(s) they have missed due to their verified health condition.

Please note, HCPS transportation is not available for partial or half days outside of those already scheduled on the HCPS school calendar.

Additionally, concurrent delivery of Home and Hospital instructional services can be provided for students when their physical or emotional condition requires the student to be absent from school on an intermittent basis that accumulates to ≥ 20% of the school year (i.e., 36 days). These conditions include, but are not limited to, kidney failure, cancer, asthma, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, depression, and bipolar disorder. Students are expected to primarily attend school in-person and will receive Home and Hospital Teaching support for their intermittent absences that are due to their health condition.

Possibly. Home and Hospital services can be provided during convalescence or treatment time in a medical institution, or therapeutic treatment center, or in the student’s place of residence, or all of these. Therapeutic treatment centers include any day or residential facility, licensed by a unit of State government, providing treatment for medical, physical, or emotional conditions including drug or alcohol dependency, or both.

If an application is received and approved, the local Student Services office will work with staff at the treatment location to determine whether home and hospital services can be implemented and, if so, the specifics of the instructional program provided. This could include scheduling direct instructional services, or contracting with private providers, agencies, or other local school systems to provide instructional services.

**Please note, in some instances services may not be able to be approved and rendered due to the location of the treatment facility or the nature of the student’s treatment.

Reach out to the pupil personnel worker for your student’s school. Before Home and Hospital Teaching services can be initiated, the HCPS Home and Hospital Application is required to be completed by the student’s treatment provider(s) verifying the student’s physical or emotional condition and that the current condition prevents the student from participating in the school of enrollment. A parent/legal guardian must complete and sign the first part of the application, acknowledging that they have read important notes about the Home and Hospital program. The parent signature also authorizes Student Support Services staff to consult with the treatment provider who is recommending Home and Hospital Services, as well as the consent to the initiation of services.

The application should be returned to the office of the pupil personnel worker assigned to the student’s school of enrollment.

It is important that an application be provided as soon as possible from the time that the family and provider are aware that the student will be absent for 3 weeks or more. Services are only approved from the time the application is received and do not cover periods of time the student may have been absent prior to the application being submitted.

**It is the parent’s responsibility to provide the completed application to the local Student Services Office.

Maryland regulations dictate that the following professionals are the ONLY providers authorized to sign the application:

• Medical Conditions
  • Licensed Physician/Medical Doctor
  • Certified Nurse Practitioner (CRNP)
• Emotional Conditions
  • Licensed Psychologist
  • Licensed Psychiatrist
  • Certified School Psychologist
  • Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (CRNP-PMH or PMHRNP)

To avoid a delay in the processing of the application, please be sure that the credentials of the provider completing the application are consistent with those listed above. At this time, physician’s assistants, licensed or Master’s level social workers and licensed professional counselors are not approved to be the provider completing the application. Additionally, medical physicians other than psychiatrists and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners are not authorized to sign for emotional conditions.

The individual Pupil Services Office will process the application as quickly as possible to determine the need for service and begin instructional services, but no later than 10 school calendar days. If services are approved and instruction begins after the 10^th school calendar day, the Pupil Services office will develop a plan with the family and home and hospital teacher to make up the missed service hours.

To ensure the application is processed quickly and smoothly, please check that all sections of the application are completed. Missing information, applications missing the parent signature, or applications signed by professionals other than those listed above, will delay the processing of the application.

All HCPS home and hospital teachers have met the Maryland state regulation requirements to become a home and hospital teacher (COMAR 13A.03.05 Administration of Home and Hospital Teaching for Students).

HCPS will make every effort to assign one home and hospital teacher for a student; however, some instructional plans may require that more than one teacher be assigned.

No. The pupil personnel worker can note your preference, but the assignment of a particular home and hospital teacher cannot be guaranteed.

If home and hospital teaching services are approved, an instructional plan will be developed in conjunction with the student’s home school. Services will be provided via virtual sessions with the home and hospital teacher(s). The pupil personnel worker may authorize in-person sessions on a case-by-case basis depending on the needs of the student, parent input, and availability of home and hospital teachers. Sessions may take place in the home, hospital, school, or designated public location.

The assigned teacher(s) will contact the parent/legal guardian directly to schedule teaching sessions. Sessions are scheduled at a time that is mutually agreeable to the family and the home and hospital teacher(s). Parent preference for session times (morning or afternoon) is taken into consideration but cannot be guaranteed.

Minimum instructional hours:

• Full time = 6 hours per week
• Part time (i.e., modified day) = 3 hours per week
• Concurrent = The student is provided with a base of 1 hour of instruction a week for the entire school year and up to a maximum of 3 hours/week if additional days in the week are missed. The hours of service will vary each week depending on the student’s attendance at school.

Students may be required to finish or complete assignments outside of the timeframes listed above.

Materials and delivery of materials are determined by the pupil personnel worker after factoring input from the student, parent/guardian, classroom teacher(s), and Home and Hospital teacher.

** Students receiving special education services will have their service hours and instructional plan developed by their IEP Team through an IEP meeting. More than the minimum number of hours may be approved. The IEP Team must also meet to develop a transition plan to return the student back to school.

Possibly. The Pupil Services office will attempt to provide instructional services for all classes on a student’s schedule. However, not all subjects or courses may be supported through the Home and Hospital Teaching program. In such cases, alternatives to direct instruction may be determined.

HCPS is unable to provide HHT services for courses taught at the community college through dual enrollment. Parents/guardians or students will be responsible for contacting the community college to develop a plan as to how the student will meet the demands of the college course while out of school due to their health condition.

Instructional services only begin after the application with the treatment provider statement and verification of need is received and approved by the respective Pupil Services office. Services will not be back dated prior to the approval date.

The student remains responsible for completing the class work at his or her home school until they begin Home and Hospital instruction. The family and/or student should contact the student’s school counselor or individual teachers to develop a plan regarding the missed work prior to the start of services.

A student receiving Home and Hospital services will remain enrolled at their home school and be counted as present, unless the student is unavailable for instructional service, in which event the student will be counted as absent.

For students receiving a concurrent delivery of services, the parent/legal guardian is responsible for notifying the home and hospital teacher, the pupil personnel worker, and the school each day when the student is unable to attend due to the verified chronic condition.

Please contact the Home and Hospital teacher as soon as possible if you must cancel an already scheduled session for your child so that you can work with the home and hospital teacher to reschedule. Depending on the reason for the cancellation, sessions may be eligible to be rescheduled for a later point in time.

It depends. For full-time and part-time services, service need is subject to review 60 calendar days after the initial determination of eligibility or sooner at the request of either the parent, guardian, or local school system. Continuation of service beyond 60 calendar days requires a new re-verification of service need (i.e., renewal application).

***Please note: COMAR 13A.05.01 Provision of a Free Appropriate Public Education mandates that a student receiving special education services may not receive Home and Hospital Teaching for more than sixty (60) consecutive school days based on an emotional condition, even if the need for service was reverified after the initial 60 calendar day period.

Concurrent home and hospital services are reverified annually.

Home and Hospital Teaching services are provided from the first day of school through the last school calendar day. Services are not provided during traditional summer school as participation in those courses/programs is not required.

In restricted circumstances, summer services may be authorized by the pupil personnel worker.

Families are expected to have ongoing communication with the home and hospital teacher to establish session times and discuss assignments. They may also continue to communicate with classroom teachers and school staff, as necessary.

HCPS requires that a responsible adult (18 years old or older) must be present throughout the duration of the time the home teacher is working with the student for both virtual and in-person sessions.

During sessions, students should be working in a location with minimal distractions. Students receiving services through virtual sessions are expected to have their camera and microphone on but are not required to be directly on screen.

Students may be required to finish or complete assignments outside of the timeframes listed above.

Families are expected to contact the Pupil Services office for their student’s school of enrollment if concerns arise with any part of the instructional plan during the duration of service provision.

Grades for individual assignments and tests, as well as report card grades will be determined in consultation with the classroom teacher and home and hospital teacher. Grading procedures will vary depending on the instructional plan developed for the student’s Home and Hospital program.

Please be aware that the student’s grades reported on HCPS Home Access Center may not be reflective of the student’s course progress while on the Home and Hospital Teaching program.

Any grading disputes that occur will be reviewed and decided upon by the principal in consultation with the pupil personnel worker. The principal’s decision is final.

The parent/legal guardian should contact the pupil personnel worker a minimum of three days before the student is planning to return to school. A Home and Hospital re-entry meeting will be scheduled to review the student’s needs upon returning to school and develop a plan to aid in the student’s transition.

For students with IEP or 504 plans, an IEP meeting or 504 meeting will be scheduled for this purpose.

Please provide any updated recommendations from community-based providers in writing, at that time.