Home School

Districts are legally obligated to provide FAPE to all students with disabilities who reside within district boundaries. The IEP team is tasked with determining what FAPE looks like in a homeschool environment.

Here are some things to consider:

• 1. IEPs should be designed to provide access to the general curriculum, so what barriers are created by the child’s disability? 

     • • For example, there might be the need for specialized instruction in the areas of reading and writing. The team would talk about how much time is needed to meet the goals they set in those areas and then determine location (probably school) and frequency (maybe 2x per week) of those services.
         
         

  2. Assuming there is only one student in the homeschool situation, the teacher would likely be individualizing instruction anyway. Therefore, any services the school provides could be part direct instruction and part consulting with the teacher. That way you’d be increasing the capacity of the teacher by assisting with lesson design and modification expertise as well as providing instruction/assessment on a regular but maybe not as frequent a basis.
     
     

  3. The standard is educational benefit. Be sure the measurable goals address areas of concern created by the student’s disability. Then, monitor to ensure there is adequate progress. 

     • • For example, if the reading goal is to read 100 words per minute and the student currently reads 20, then you’d be looking for the student to be at 40 words after 9 weeks, 60 after a semester, etc. If the student is still around 20 words at semester, then the team should reconvene, discuss, problem solve, and document.